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CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 


From  the  bust  in  Hit  British  Mustuni].      [J'hoto  by  W.A.Mansrll  .<•  Co.,  London. 
CLKOl'ATRA. 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

Antiquity's  Queen  of  Romance 


BY 

PHILIP  W.  SERGEANT 

B.A.,  TRINITY  COLLEGE,  OXFORD 

Author   of  "The  Empress   Josephine,  Napoleon's 

Enchantress,"  "The  Last  Empress  of  the 

French,"  etc. 


NEW  ^Mllr    YORK 
GEORGE  H.  DORAN  COMPANY 


Printed  in  Great  Britain 


SRLB 

URL 


CONTENTS 


CHAP.  PACK 

I. — Egypt  and  Rome   ....  9 

II. — Cleopatra's  Father         ...  29 

III. — Cleopatra  and  Ptolemy  XIV.         .  44 

IV. — Cleopatra  and  Caesar    ...  64 

V. — Cleopatra  and  Caesar  {continued)    .  87 

VI. — Cleopatra's  Kingdom      .         .         .  106 

VII. — The  Shadow  of  Rome     .         .         .  124 

VIII. — Cleopatra  and  Antony  .         .         .  141 

IX. — The  "  Inimitables  "...  156 

X. — The  Break  between  Cleopatra  and 

Antony 165 

XI. — The  Liaison  renewed     .         .         .  180 

XII. — The  Empire  of  the  East         .         .  203 

XIII. — The  Prelude  to  Actium.         .         .  213 

XIV. — East  against  West,         .         .         .  237 

XV. — The  "  Die-Togethers  "    .         .         .  259 

XVI. — The  Ending  of  a  Tragedy      .         .  284 

XVII. — Cleopatra  the  Great      .         .         .  305 

Appendix  A.    Genealogy  of  Cleopatra  the 

Great 333 

Appendix    B.      The    Family    of    Ptolemy 

AuLETES     ......  334 

Principal  Dates  in  Cleopatra's  Life  .  337 
List    of    Chief    Modern    Authorities 

consulted 338 

Ancient    Authorities,    arranged    ac- 
cording TO  DATE         ....  338 

Index          ...                 •        •        .  339 


PREFACE 

The  present  book  may  be  described  as  an  ex- 
periment. I  wished  to  ascertain  whether  one 
of  the  great  women  rulers  of  antiquity  could  not 
be  made  as  interesting  to  the  general  reader  as 
I  some  of  the  queens  and  empresses  of  more  recent 
"  times  would  appear  to  be,  if  I  may  judge  by  the 
reception  given  to  their  biographies  in  this 
country  and  elsewhere.  Among  the  women  of 
old  none  seemed  a  more  promising  subject  than 
Cleopatra  the  Great ;  for,  while  she  is  a  character 
of  world-wide  celebrity  and  therefore  requires 
no  introduction  to  the  most  exclusive  of  readers, 
she  has  hitherto  been  treated  almost  always  as 
though  she  were  a  follower  in  the  train  of  two  of 
the  great  personages  in  Roman  history  instead 
of  meriting  to  be  considered  by  herself. 

Cleopatra  appeared  to  me  undoubtedly  to 
furnish  a  worthy  subject  for  a  biography,  if 
sufficient  material  could  be  got  together  to  render 
her  life  intelligible.  One  great  disadvantage  in 
\vriting  of  the  Egyptian  Queen,  as  compared 
with  the  Empress  Josephine,  for  instance,  lies 
in  the  absence  in  ancient  days  of  the  host  of 
memoirists,  brilliant  or  otherwise,  but  always 
somehow  valuable,  who  make  vivid  the  stories 
of  modern  heroes  and  heroines.  In  attempting 
to  construct  a  background  for  Cleopatra  from  the 
classical  writers  who  so  inadequately,   for   this 


PREFACE 

purpose,  take  the  place  of  the  memoirists,  there 
is  a  risk  of  becoming  historical,  archaeological, 
or,  worse  still,  pedantic.  Challenges  of  accuracy 
can  only  properly  be  met  by  a  multitude  of  foot- 
notes, which  is  a  weariness  to  the  eye  and  a  dis- 
traction to  the  attention.  I  trust,  however, 
that  I  may  have  incurred  the  wrath  of  the 
expert*  rather  than  of  the  general  reader,  and 
that  "  Cleopatra  of  Egypt  "  may  appear  rather 
undocumented  than  dull. 

A  list  of  the  principal  authorities  consulted 
by  me  will  be  found  at  the  end  of  this  work.  I 
should  Mke  to  take  the  opportunity  here  to  ac- 
knowledge my  special  indebtedness  to  M.  Bouche- 
Leclercq,  Professor  of  the  Faculte  des  Lettres 
of  Paris,  whose  altogether  admirable  "  Histoire 
des  Lagides  "  is  a  fresh  revelation  of  the  ability 
of  French  scholars  to  make  their  writings  of 
enthralling  interest  to  those  of  scholarship 
immeasurably  inferior  to  their  own. 

Philip  Walsingham  Sergeant. 

London,  August  ^ist,  1909. 

*  Some  of  the  spellings  adopted  may  provoke  criticism, 
and  therefore  it  should  be  stated  here  that  popular  forms 
such  as  Pompey,  Antony,  etc.,  have  been  freely  admitted  ; 
while,  on  the  other  hand,  Greek  names  have  generally  been 
given  the  Greek  spelling  (which  has  the  advantage  of  usually 
distinguishing  the  quantities — e.g.  Potheinos,  Brucheion), 
unless  they  have  become  so  familiar  in  their  Latin  trans- 
literations as  to  make  this  unadvisable  for  the  sake  of  clear- 
ness. The  use  of  Greek  characters,  however,  has  been 
avoided  altogether.  As  for  the  Egyptian  names,  uniformity 
of  spelling  has  not  been  attempted.  Que  Messieurs  les 
igyptologues  commencent  I 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 


CHAPTER  I 

EGYPT  AND   ROME 

Nearly  two  thousand  years  ago,  on  one  of  those 
bright  and  clear  days  which  mark  the  presence 
of  Spring  in  Lower  Egypt,  before  the  hot  wind 
from  the  desert  begins  to  blow,  there  took  place 
in  the  city  of  Alexandria  the  first  meeting  between 
two  persons  who  were  destined  to  become  the 
hero  and  heroine  of  what  those  writers  who 
lived  near  to~it  in  time  felt  to  be  the  most  en- 
thralling romance  of  antiquity,  devoting  to  it 
so  much  attention  that  the  outlines  of  the  story 
have  been  familiar  throughout  all  subsequent 
ages  to  people  taking  little  or  no  interest  generally 
in  the  history  of  the  ancient  world. 

The  man  was  a  young  Roman  cavalry  officer, 
who  up  to  the  age  of  twenty-eight  had  done 
little  to  distinguish  himself  from  a  great  number 
of  his  countrymen  in  the  same  station  of  life  as 
himself.  Gifted  with  courage  and  considerable 
military  ability,  he  had  spent  his  time,  apart  from 
his  career  in  the  army,  in  such  a  manner  as  to 
gain  himself  small  credit.     He  was  very  heavily 

9  I* 


CLEOPATRA   OF   EGYPT 

in  debt,  and  notorious  for  his  dissipations  and 
the  evil  character  of  his  associates.  He  was  of 
powerful  build,  suggesting  to  his  bitter  enemy 
Cicero  a  gladiator  by  his  jaws,  his  flanks,  and 
his  frame  in  general.  At  the  same  time  he  was 
undeniably  handsome.  In  the  words  of  Plutarch, 
he  had  a  noble  dignity  of  person,  and  his  well- 
grown  beard,  broad  forehead,  and  hooked  nose 
recalled  that  Herakles  from  whom  his  family 
traced  their  descent  through  Anton,  a  son  of 
the  demigod. 

Such  was  Marcus  Antonius,  the  commander  of 
the  cavalry  in  a  Roman  expeditionary  force 
which  had  restored  to  the  throne  of  Egypt  the 
thirteenth  of  the  royal  house  which  reigned  over 
the  land  since  its  conquest  by  Alexander  the 
Great.  King  Ptolemy  was  back  in  his  vast 
Graeco-Egyptian  palace  in  the  royal  quarter  of 
Alexandria,  and  re-united  to  what  remained  to 
him  of  the  family  whom  he  deserted  three  years 
before  to  fly  to  Rome. 

The  girl  who  was  to  play  heroine  to  Antony's 
hero  was  the  Princess  of  Egypt,  now  at  fourteen 
years  of  age  the  eldest  surviving  child  of  Ptolemy 
XIII,  and  therefore  by  the  old  Egyptian  custom, 
to  which  the  Macedonian  conquerors  had  in  the 
course  of  generations  bowed  without  directly 
acknowledging,  heiress  to  the  crown.  Hitherto 
overshadowed  by  the  existence  of  an  elder  sister, 
who  had  on  her  father's  return  paid  with  her  life 

10 


EGYPT   AND    ROME  \ 

the  penalty  for  daring  to  assume  his  power  during 
his  absence,  Cleopatra  had  become  a  person  of 
high  importance,  and  as  such  was  not  secluded 
from   the   gaze   of   the   foreign   officers  through 
whose  agency  she  was  Crown  Princess  and  her 
father  once  more  King.     There  being  no  Egyptian 
record  of  the  restoration  of  Ptolemy  XIII,  we 
have  to  rely  upon  the  statement  of  one  classical 
author*  that  Antony  and  Cleopatra  met  now  in 
Alexandria  and  that  the  Roman  cavalryman  was 
already  attracted  by  her  who  was  one  day  to  , 
bring  about  his  ruin  and  death.     As  Cleopatra 
was  of  a  race,  and  more  particularly  of  a  family, 
where  the  women  always  matured  early,  there 
is  no  improbability  in  Appian's  second  assertion. 
At  the  beginning  of  his  brilliant  sketch  of  Cleo- 
patra  M.    Henry    Houssaye    speaks   of   Egypt, 
"  after  forty  or  fifty  centuries  of  existence,  slowly 
dying  under  the  influence  of  the  ceil  de  jettatore 
of  the  Roman  people."     If  we  may  trust  the 
only  extant  reference  to  this  meeting  at  Alex- 
andria, one  of  the  most  celebrated  of  aU  Romans 
now  in  his  turn  fell  under  the  influence  of  the 
Evil  Eye  of  the  last  of  the  queens  of  Egypt.    . 
In  order  to  understand  the  situation  of  affairs 

*  The  Greek  writer  Appian,  who  in  his  "  Civil  Wars," 
V.  5,  when  speaking  of  the  famous  encounter  of  Antony  and 
Cleopatra  at  Tarsus  in  41  B.C.,  has  this  meagre  reference 
to  an  earlier  meeting  :  "  It  is  said  that  he  was  always  very 
susceptible,  and  that  he  had  been  enamoured  of  her  long  ago, 
when  she  was  still  a  girl  and  he  was  serving  as  commander 
of  the  cavalry  under  Gabinius  at  Alexandria." 

II 


CLEOPATRA    OF   EGYPT 

when  Cleopatra  the  Great  makes  her  first  ap- 
pearance in  the  world's  history,  it  is  necessary 
to  go  back  now,  some  twenty-five  years,  to  a 
particularly  crime-stained  period  in  the  disgraceful 
annals  of  the  later  descendants  of  Ptolemy,  the 
son  of  Lagos.  King  Ptolemy  X,  nicknamed 
"  LathjTOS  "  (from  the  resemblance  of  the  end 
of  his  nose  to  a  vetch,  it  is  said  !),  had  died  about 
8 1  B.C.  after  a  much-troubled  and  interrupted 
reign,  leaving  no  legitimate  issue  except  a 
daughter  Berenike,  third  of  that  name  in  the 
dynasty.  Berenike  was  not  younger  than  thirty 
and  not  older  than  forty  when  her  father  died, 
and  was  the  widow  of  her  uncle,  Ptolemy  Alex- 
ander the  Elder.  As  has  been  said,  the  Mace- 
donian rulers  had  come  with  time  to  accept 
the  Eg}^ptian  theory  of  succession  to  the  throne, 
which  gave  daughters  equal  rights  with  sons. 
It  is  held  by  many  of  the  authorities  that 
inheritance  in  Egypt  originally  was  through  the 
woman,  man  only  receiving  his  property  and 
position  through  the  rights  of  his  mother  and 
his  wife,  and  that  under  the  early  Pharaohs  the 
throne  descended  in  the  female  line.  Records 
of  a  woman's  sole  rule  date  from  about  3000 
B.C.,  under  the  queen  commonly  known  as 
Nitocris.  Side  by  side  with  the  law  of  female 
inheritance  went  the  idea  of  the  sanctity  of  the 
royal  race,  descendants  of  the  Sun  God  Amon-Ra, 
leading  to  the  strange  and  repulsive  custom  of 

12 


EGYPT   AND    ROME 

marriage  between  the  closest  relatives,  including 
brother  and  sister,*  This  custom,  too,  the 
Ptolemies  had  accepted,  imions  between  those 
very  close  of  kin  not  being  so  unfamiliar  to  them, 
as  Macedonians,  as  to  other  Greeks. 

As  a  husband  for  Berenike,  therefore,  there  was 
no  objection  to  Ptolemy  Alexander  the  Younger, 
although  he  was  son  of  Alexander  I  by  his  first 
wife,  and  consequently  stepson  as  well  as  cousin 
of  the  heiress  princess.  The  young  man  was  a 
client  of  that  brutal  Roman  genius,  the  Dictator 
Sulla,  who  received  him  after  his  escape  from 
captivity  in  the  hands  of  Mithridates  the  Great 
in  83  B.C.  and  had  taken  him  to  Rome  with  him. 
He  was  still  under  thirty  years  of  age  when,  on 
his  uncle's  death,  Sulla  put  him  on  the  throne  of 
Egypt  without  consulting  the  people  of  Alex- 
andria, usually  in  times  of  trouble  and  dispute 
the  king-makers  of  the  country.  Alexander's 
accession  to  the  throne,  however,  combined  with 
his  marriage  with  the  heiress,  was  quite  in  accord 

*  M.  Maspero  says  :  "  The  nobility  of  each  member  of  a 
family  and  his  right  to  power  were  commensurate  with  the 
quality  of  the  Solar  blood  which  flowed  in  his  veins  ;  he  who 
inherited  it  from  both  father  and  mother  took  precedence 
of  him  who  held  it  only  from  either  father  or  mother.  .  .  . 
The  most  sacred  marriage  was  that  between  brother  and 
sister,  and  it  acquired  the  highest  degree  of  perfection  if 
the  brother  and  sister  in  question  were  themselves  the  chil- 
dren of  a  similar  marriage.  This  peculiarity  of  Egyptian 
manners,  which  seems  to  us  a  refinement  of  incest,  was 
regarded  as  an  institution  of  divine  origin,  most  fitting  to 
preserve  the  purity  of  the  race."  ("  New  Light  on  Ancient 
Egypt,"  p.  82.) 

13 


CLEOPATRA    OF   EGYPT 

with  precedent  and  would  have  provoked  no 
stir,  had  it  not  been  for  his  own  conduct.  He 
was  practically  unknown  to  the  Alexandrians 
before  Sulla  imposed  him  on  them,  except  as 
being  the  son  of  the  bad  king  Ptolemy  Alexander 
I,  who  finished  up  his  usurping  reign  with  the 
murder  of  his  mother,  according  to  the  belief 
of  his  contemporaries.  Berenike,  on  the  other 
hand,  was  the  daughter  of  Lath5n:os,  who,  on 
his  return  from  the  exile  into  which  his  mother 
and  brother  had  driven  him,  was  welcomed  with 
the  name  Potheinos,  "  the  Desired  One  "  ;  and 
she  was  herself  beloved  and  popular,  on  the 
testimony  of  a  fragment  of  a  speech  by  Cicero 
on  Egyptian  affairs.  The  new  king,  nevertheless, 
had  the  hardihood  to  commence  his  reign  as  his 
father  had  ended  his,  with  the  murder  of  the 
woman  to  whom  all  his  subjects  looked  as  the 
chief  representative  of  the  dynasty.  Berenike's 
death  was  soon  avenged,  for,  after  ruling  only 
nineteen  days,  Sulla's  client  was  dragged  by  the 
Alexandrians  from  the  Palace  to  the  great 
park  known  as  the  Gymnasium  and  there  slain, 
leaving  behind  him  only  an  evil  memory  and  a 
will  which  put  his  country  at  the  mercy  of  his 
friends  the  Romans. 

After  the  violent  deaths  of  Berenike  and 
Alexander  there  remained  but  one  legitimate 
offshoot  of  the  house  of  Lagos,  a  princess  of 
the  name  of  Selene,   second  sister  of  Ptolemy 

14 


EGYPT    AND    ROME 

Lathyros.  Her  mother,  Cleopatra  III,  probably 
the  worst  woman  in  the  family  history,  had 
first  compelled  Lathyros  to  marry  Selene,  and 
then  taken  her  away  from  him,  driving  him  out 
to  give  the  throne  to  his  brother,  Selene  had 
proceeded  to  marry  in  turn  three  Syrian  princes, 
all  named  Antiochus,  and  all  pretenders  to 
the  crown  of  Syria.  She  later  laid  claim,  on 
behalf  of  her  children,  to  Egypt  and  its  appanage 
Cyprus,  as  weU  as  to  Syria,  but  does  not  seem 
to  have  put  forward  these  pretensions  yet. 

Ptolemy  Lathyros  had  left  two  illegitimate 
sons,  who  were  being  brought  up  in  Syria  at  the 
time  of  his  death.  After  the  revolution  which 
ended  the  brief  reign  of  his  nephew,  the  Alex- 
andrians sent  for  these  boys,  of  whom  the  elder 
was  about  fifteen,  and  divided  between  them 
Egypt  and  Cyprus.  The  elder,  who  was  destined 
to  be  the  father  of  the  most  celebrated  woman  of 
antiquity,  took  Egypt,  and  is  known  as  Ptolemy 
(XIII)  Neos  Dionysos,  or,  more  commonly,  by 
his  nickname  of  Auletes,  "  the  Flute-player." 
The  younger  is  known  simply  as  Ptolemy  the 
Cyprian.  As  both  Egypt  and  Cyprus  accepted 
their  new  rulers  without  a  protest,*  it  may  be 
presumed  that  there  was  no  doubt  entertained  as 
to  their  being  genuine  sons  of  the  Tenth  Ptolemy. 

♦  Unless  we  must  attach  importance  to  the  formal  corona- 
tion of  Ptolemy  XIII  being  apparently  delayed  until  76  B.C. 
See  Bouch6-Leclercq,  "  Histoire  des  Lagides,'  II.,  p.  124,  n.  2, 
and  Mahaffy,  "  History  of  Egypt,"  p,  225. 

15 


CLEOPATRA    OF    EGYFl' 

Ptolemy  XIII,  having  become  King  of  Egypt, 
it  remained  to  find  a  wife  for  him  who  should 
help  him  to  carry  on  the  succession.  It  was 
not  quite  unknown  that  one  of  the  Lagidae 
should  marry  outside  his  own  family,  even  since 
the  Fourth  Ptolemy  had  conformed  to  Egyptian 
custom  by  taking  as  his  bride  his  sister  Arsinoe  ; 
for  Ptolemy  Epiphanes  had  married  the  Seleucid 
princess  Cleopatra  of  Syria.  So  now  there  seems 
to  have  been  an  idea  of  a  union  between  the  two 
sons  of  Lathyros  and  two  daughters  of  Mith- 
ridates,  King  of  Pontus,  the  great  enemy  of 
Rome.  But  these  two  girls,  Mithridatis  and 
Nyssa,  were  as  yet  infants,  and  nothing  came  of 
the  proposal  to  make  them  queens  of  Egypt 
and  of  Cyprus.  In  78  B.C.,  we  find  the  Egyptian 
Ptolemy  married  to  a  Cleopatra  Tryphaena, 
the  two  together  being  named  in  a  demotic 
pap5n:us  of  the  third  year  of  his  reign  "  the  Gods 
Philopatores  Philadelphoi,"  in  true  Ptolemaic 
fashion.  Who  was  this  Cleopatra  Tryphaena  ? 
It  is  not  known.  According  to  the  regular 
Egyptian  formula  she  is  spoken  of  as  her  husband's 
"  sister- wife  "  ;  but  this  does  not  prove  (though 
it  is  probable)  that  she  was  a  daughter  of  Ptolemy 
Lathyros.  The  old  practice  of  supplying  a  wife 
of  the  requisite  divine  blood  from  among  the 
priestesses  of  the  Sun — "  the  harem  of  Amon- 
Ra,"  as  they  have  been  caUed — Shaving  died  out 
before  the  Macedonian  invasion  of  Egypt,   the 

16 


EGYPT   AND    ROME 

only  way  of  increasing  the  purity  of  the  royal 
blood  was  by  discovering  the  princess  most 
nearly  akin  to  the  king.  It  seems  almost  certain, 
therefore,  that,  if  Ptolemy  XIII  had  a  sister, 
she  was  this  same  Cleopatra  Tryphaena.  The 
question  is  difficult,  but  is  of  very  little  im- 
portance, except  in  connection  with  the  other 
question  alluded  to  later  on,  as  to  who  was  the 
mother  of  Cleopatra  the  Great. 

The  task  which  confronted  Ptolemy  Auletes  at 
the  beginning  of  his  reign  was  hard.  Even  if  he 
was  able  to  fortify  his  position  in  Egypt  generally 
by  some  marriage  which  gratified  his  people's 
desire  for  purity  of  the  Solar  blood,  he  had  still 
to  deal  with  his  non-Egyptian  subjects,  in 
Alexandria  chiefly,  and  with  the  Romans  who 
had  set  his  predecessor  upon  the  throne.  Alexan- 
drian hostility  to  him,  which  was  to  make  him 
an  exile  later,  does  not  seem  to  have  been  mani- 
fested during  his  first  few  years  of  rule.  But 
the  Roman  problem  faced  him  in  the  very  be- 
ginning. The  late  king,  Ptolemy  Alexander 
II,  had  left  a  will ',  or  at  least  the  Romans 
declared  that  there  was  a  will,  by  which  he 
bequeathed  his  kingdom  to  them  after  his  death. 
If  he  did  so,  he  was  only  following  the  example 
of  his  own  kinsman,  Ptolemy  Apion,  illegitimate 
son  of  Ptolemy  IX,  who  bequeathed  his  realm, 
the  former  Egyptian  province  of  Cyrenaica,  to 
the  Roman  people  in  96  B.C. 

17 


CLEOPATRA   OF   EGYPT 

Whether  the  "  will  of  Alexander  "  was  genuine 
or  not,  the  Romans  took  no  immediate  steps  to 
enforce  the  reputed  provisions.  They  had  not 
yet  taken  up  their  legacy  in  Cyrenaica,  nor  did 
they  do  so  until  75.  With  regard  to  Egypt  and 
Cyprus,  they  suffered  the  sons  of  Lathyros  to 
ascend  the  two  thrones  without  a  protest.  They 
did  not,  however,  in  any  way  recognise  the 
accessions.  Auletes  saw  that,  until  he  obtained  a 
formal  recognition  from  Rome,  his  situation  was 
most  precarious.     But  how  was  he  to  obtain  it  ? 

As  modem  historians  of  Rome  have  pointed 
out,  nothing  suited  the  Roman  Senate  better 
than  that  Egypt's  fate  should  remain  in  suspense. 
If  they  acted  upon  the  terms  of  the  will  it  would 
be  necessary  to  set  about  the  organisation  of 
Egypt  into  a  Roman  province.  But  they  were 
afraid  to  put  into  the  hands  of  any  one  adminis- 
trator the  wealthiest  land  in  the  world  of  that 
day.  They  could  expect  only  one  result — a 
breaking  out  afresh  of  the  civil  wars  which  had 
so  recently  ceased  to  devastate  Italy  and  the 
Empire.  On  the  other  hand,  Egypt  was  already 
marked  out  as  their  prey,  and  the  existence  of 
the  will,  claimed  by  them  to  be  genuine,  enabled 
them  to  bleed  the  country  slowly  to  death. 
The  king  was  encouraged  to  hope  that  he  might 
buy  recognition,  if  he  could  gain  it  by  no  other 
means.  It  can  readily  be  understood  that  this 
meant  a  heavy  expense  to  Ptolemy,  dealing  with 

18 


EGYPT   AND    ROME 

a  city  in  which  the  Numidian  Jugurtha  had  many 
years  before  declared  all  for  sale.* 

Such  a  policy  as  Ptolemy  Auletes  pursued 
was  sure  to  prove  unprofitable  until  he  should 
discover  the  price  of  some  man  powerful  enough 
to  wrest  for  him  from  the  Senate  what  he  desired. 
And  while  he  still  remained  unrecognised  the 
danger  of  losing  his  country  entirely  seemed  to 
be  growing  greater.  His  kinswoman  Selene, 
in  75,  began  to  urge  her  children's  claims  to 
Egypt  and  Cyprus,  as  well  as  to  Syria,  then  in 
the  hands  of  the  Armenian  Tigranes,  sending 
her  two  boys  (by  which  of  her  Syrian  husbands 
it  is  not  certain)  to  Rome,  provided  with  the 
proper  means  of  urging  their  suit  in  such  a  place. 
In  the  same  year,  or  the  following,  the  Romans 
took  over  the  government  of  Cyrenaica,  which 
had  been  waiting  for  them  eleven  years.  But 
with  regard  to  Egypt  they  persisted  in  procrasti- 
nating. Selene's  embassy  left  Rome  in  despair 
of  effecting  anything  by  a  longer  stay  ;  and  still 
Auletes  failed  to  get  any  assurance  from  the 
Senate,  which  contented  itself  with  checking  the 
attempts   of   the    democrats   at    Rome    to    get 

*  Of  Rome  of  the  period  now  under  discussion  Professor 
Mommsen  writes  :  "  As  a  matter  of  course,  morality  and 
family  life  were  treated  as  antiquated  things  among  all 
ranks  of  society.  To  be  poor  was  not  merely  the  sorest 
disgrace  and  the  worst  crime,  but  the  only  disgrace  and  the 
only  crime.  .  .  .  Men  had  forgotten  what  honesty  was. 
A  person  who  refused  a  bribe  was  regarded  not  as  an  upright 
man,  but  as  a  personal  foe  "  (V.  p.  390). 

19 


CLEOPATRA    OF   EGYPT 

entrusted  to  one  of  their  party  the  task  of  con- 
verting Eg3^t  into  a  Roman  province.  Thus 
in  65  the  proposal  of  some  of  the  tribunes  of  the 
people  to  send  Julius  Caesar  to  the  land  where 
he  was  one  day  to  imperil  both  his  life  and  his 
reputation  was  met  by  the  usual  device  of  induc- 
ing other  tribunes  to  use  the  power  of  veto  against 
their  colleagues.  A  more  serious  effort  was  made 
by  the  democrats  at  the  end  of  the  following 
year,  when,  probably  instigated  by  the  bankrupt 
Caesar  himself,  the  tribune  Rullus  tried  to  bring 
in  an  Agrarian  Law  which  would  have  divided 
up  Egypt,  together  with  all  other  domains 
acquired  by  Rome  since  the  joint  consulship  of 
Sulla  and  Pompey  in  88  B.C.  Cicero's  speech 
against  the  measure  survives. 

Auletes  was  driven  by  his  fears  to  dangerous 
expedients.  The  great  Pompey  himself  was 
out  in  the  East,  and  in  63  annexed  to  Rome 
Syria,  which  had  been  evacuated  by  its  Armenian 
invaders  in  69,  the  year  of  Cleopatra's  birth. 
With  the  annexation  of  Syria,  once  a  portion 
of  the  Egyptian  Empire,  there  only  remained 
One  independent  state  in  the  Hellenic  East — 
Egypt  itself,  with  Cyprus,  still  under  the  brother 
of  Auletes.  The  King  of  Egypt,  unable  to 
get  any  satisfaction  from  the  Senate,  and 
alarmed  at  the  attitude  of  his  Alexandrian 
subjects,  who  were  provoked  by  his  subservience 
to  Rome,  despatched  an  invitation  to  Pompey 

20 


EGYPT   AND    ROME 

to  come  to  Egypt,  sending  him  at  the  same 
time  presents  of  money  and  clothing  for  his 
troops,  which,  according  to  Appian,  Pompey 
accepted,  while  showing  no  desire  to  visit  Egypt. 
Perhaps  it  was  well  for  the  independence  of  the 
country  that  he  did  not  come,  although  he, 
unlike  most  of  his  Roman  contemporaries,  was 
not  in  desperate  need  of  money.  Anyhow,  in 
6i  Pompey  retvurned  to  Rome,  leaving  Auletes 
still  in  suspense. 

The  consular  elections  at  the  end  of  the  next 
year  decided  the  harassed  king  to  do  what  it 
would  have  been  cheaper  for  him  to  have  done 
before,  had  he  only  realised  it.  Julius  Caesar 
was  one  of  the  two  consuls  chosen  for  the  year 
5g.  This  was  a  man  of  whom  Auletes  knew 
little,  except  that  he  had  twice  already  threatened 
to  seize  Egypt  in  order  to  meet  his  debts  (esti-* 
mated  at  a  quarter  of  a  million  pounds  in  62) 
and  give  himself  a  fresh  start.  He  saw,  however, 
that  he  was  worth  buying,  and  offered  him  six 
thousand  talents  (;^i, 467,000),  which  was  about 
half  a  year's  revenue  of  Egypt  at  that  time, 
according  to  one  reckoning ;  a  whole  year's 
revenue,  according  to  another.  With  this  sum 
Auletes  purchased  Rome's  recognition  of  the 
kingship  which  he  had  held  on  sufferance  for 
more  than  twenty  years.  Caesar,  now  in  league 
with  Pompey  and  with  the  financier  Crassus, 
proposed  his  "  Julian  Law  concerning  the  King 

21 


CLEOPATRA    OF   EGYPT 

of  Egypt,"  and  carried  it  by  violence,  in  spite  of 
the  fierce  opposition  of  the  aristocracy.  Ptolemy 
Auletes  was  recognised  as  "  ally  and  friend  of 
the  Roman  People,"  and  settled  down,  as  he 
hoped,  to  enjoy  the  results  of  his  long  and  expen- 
sive struggle  with  the  greed  of  Rome.  In  another 
year's  time  he  was  an  exile  from  his  kingdom. 

It  is  impossible  to  withhold  all  sympathy 
from  Auletes,  wretched  though  be  the  figure 
which  he  cuts  in  history.  He  succeeded  in  hold- 
ing off  the  hands  of  Rome  from  his  country  by 
the  sole  means  in  his  power,  only  to  find  himself 
repudiated  by  his  subjects,  or  at  least  by  that 
section  of  them  whose  opinion  carried  weight. 
He  was  reduced  to  the  desperate  strait  of  debasing 
the  national  coinage  in  order  to  supplement 
the  money  which  he  raised  by  extra  taxes  and 
confiscation  to  meet  the  enormous  liabilities 
which  he  had  incurred.  This  alone  might  not 
have  sufficed  to  rouse  Alexandria  against  him, 
for  the  bulk  of  the  taxation  fell  upon  the  more 
docile  native  Egyptians,  accustomed  by  cen- 
turies of  Pharaohs,  and  a  dozen  generations  of 
Ptolemies,  even  more  skilful  than  the  Pharaohs 
at  exploiting  their  subjects,  to  submit  to  a 
system  of  taxation  which  left  them  with  little 
to  call  their  own.  But  the  Roman  seizure  of 
Cyprus,  the  last  remaining  possession  of  Egypt, 
stirred  up  a  wave  of  indignation  against  the 
"  ally  and  friend  of  the  Roman  People."     The 

22 


EGYPT   AND    ROME 

brother  of  Auletes,  Ptolemy  the  Cyprian,  had 
decUned  to  spend  his  money  to  pmchase  recogni- 
tion from  Rome,  and,  in  consequence,  saw  him- 
self in  58  robbed  of  his  kingdom.  Publius 
Clodius,  most  blackguardly  of  all  Romans  of  his 
day,  proposed  the  annexation,  having  a  personal 
grudge  against  the  Cyprian,  it  was  said,  because 
he  had  nine  years  earlier  refused  to  offer  more 
than  two  talents  (less  than  £500)  to  ransom 
Clodius  from  some  pirates  into  whose  hands  he 
had  fallen.  Clodius  took  an  ample  revenge  for 
this  refusal  of  a  larger  sum,  for  the  Romans 
accepted  readily  his  charge  against  the  king  that 
he  was  plotting  against  them,  and  decreed  the 
annexation  of  the  island ;  whereon  Ptolemy 
committed  suicide,  leaving  his  treasure  of 
£1,700,000  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  his  oppressors. 
According  to  the  historian  Dion  Cassius,  the 
p>eople  of  Alexandria  now  insisted  that  Ptolemy 
Auletes  should  demand  back  Cyprus  from  Rome 
as  a  possession  of  Egypt,  on  the  penalty  of  break- 
ing off  friendship  with  them  if  they  refused. 
Failing  to  pacify  the  Alexandrians,  Auletes  left 
the  city  for  Rome,  where  he  complained  that  he 
had  been  expelled.  "  He  applied,"  as  Mommsen 
remarks,  "as  if  on  account  of  his  eviction  from 
the  estate  which  he  had  purchased,  to  those 
who  had  sold  it."  He  found  the  Romans  willing 
to  see  him  restored,  but  unable  to  agree  who 
should  restore  him.     The  Senate  was  still  afraid 

23 


CLEOPATRA   OF   EGYPT 

to  entrust  the  Egyptian  business  to  any  one 
man. 

Auletes  recommenced  therefore  his  campaign 
of  bribery  which  had  brought  him  success  before. 
Only,  whereas  before  he  had  the  actual  revenues 
of  Egypt  in  his  hands,  now  he  could  only  mortgage 
his  expectations.  Nothing  daunted,  he  began  to 
borrow  from  the  money-lenders  on  the  security  of 
his  kingdom,  in  order  to  spread  the  money  among 
the  politicians.  The  Senate  was  largely  bought 
by  him,  according  to  the  rumours  current  a  little 
later.  But  still  corruption  failed  to  do  its  work 
while  the  king  contented  himself  with  buying 
numbers  of  small  men  rather  than  one  big  man. 
It  is  true  that  a  suitable  big  man  was  hard  to 
find.  Caesar,  his  former  profitable  if  expensive 
investment,  was  now  away  on  his  famous  cam- 
paigns in  Gaul.  Pompey  was  in  Rome,  and 
received  the  king  favourably,  lodging  him  in  his 
fine  villa  in  the  Alban  district,  where  many  of 
the  aristocracy  had  country-houses.  But  Pompey 
with  his  curious  stiffness  and  pride  united  an 
integrity  of  character  which  was  indeed  rare  in 
Rome,  and  the  "  honest  countenance  "  for  which 
he  was  noted  was  not  belied  by  his  conduct  in 
matters  of  finance.  The  gifts  of  Auletes  had 
not  bought  him  in  Syria  in  62,  and  we  hear  of 
no  action  on  his  part  now  beyond  the  extension 
of  hospitality  to  the  exiled  king.  As  appeared 
later,  he  was  by  no  means  unwilling  to  accept 

24 


EGYPT   AND    ROME 

the  commission  of  taking  his  guest  back  to 
Alexandria.  But,  now  as  always,  he  refused  to 
take  steps  himself  to  secure  an  appointment 
which  it  would  have  been  hard  for  his  fellow- 
countrymen  to  refuse  him. 

Delay,  little  as  he  could  avoid  it,  threatened 
grave  dangers  to  Auletes.  Not  long  after  he  had 
reached  Rome,  a  deputation  of  one  hundred  Alex- 
andrian citizens  arrived  in  Italy  to  support  the 
claims  of  the  government  which  had  been  set  up 
in  Egypt  after  the  king's  flight.  To  fight  them, 
Auletes  had  recourse  to  the  other  chief  weapon 
of  such  men  as  him,  and  supplemented  bribery 
with  assassination.  The  deputation  was  am- 
bushed at  Puteoli,  the  modern  Pozzuoli,  by 
ruffians  hired  by  the  king,  and  a  number  of  them 
were  slain.  The  others  were  bribed  to  keep 
silent.  All  appeared  to  be  going  well  for  Auletes, 
when,  late  in  the  year  57,  a  proposal  was  brought 
forward  in  the  Senate  that  the  consul,  Publius 
Cornelius  Lentulus  Spinther,  who  was  to  be 
governor  of  Cilicia  in  the  following  year,  should 
be  commissioned  to  restore  the  king.  Opposi- 
tion broke  out,  and  one  of  the  tribunes  of  the 
people,  by  name  Favonius,  drew  attention  to 
the  assassination  of  the  Alexandrian  ambassa- 
dors. The  remainder  of  the  deputation  were 
still  in  Rome,  and  the  Senate  summoned  the 
chief  man,  Dion,  to  appear  before  it  and  give 
evidence.      After    first    bribing    Dion    to    stay 

25 


CLEOPATRA   OF   EGYPT 

away,  Auletes  decided  that  it  would  be  safer 
to  have  him  more  effectually  silenced,  and, 
since  there  was  no  difficulty  in  hiring  cut- 
throats in  Rome,  Dion  disappeared.  The  crime 
was  later  laid  to  the  charge  of  one  Caelius,  v.'ho 
was  acquitted  with  the  assistance  of  Cicero — 
never  very  particular  about  the  moral  characters 
of  his  clients,  for  he  had  supported  the  cause  of 
Auletes  himself  in  the  Senate  when  the  proposal 
for  his  restoration  to  Egypt  was  under  discussion. 

The  removal  of  Dion,  however,  was  felt  even 
by  the  king  to  be  rather  a  bold  step,  and  he 
judged  it  prudent  to  leave  Rome  and  retire  to 
Ephesus  to  wait  until  Lentulus  Spinther  should 
come  east  to  take  up  his  province  of  Cilicia. 
He  left  behind  him  in  Rome  an  agent  called 
Ammonios,  who  was  supplied  with  money  and 
instructed  to  support  the  proposal  to  give  Pompey 
the  task  of  restoration.  Thus  there  was  no 
cessation  of  the  intrigues  after  the  departure  of 
Auletes.  The  aristocratic  party  continued  to 
fear  that  the  Egyptian  commission  would  put 
too  much  power  into  one  man's  hands,  and  a 
convenient  oracle  was  discovered  in  the  Sibylline 
Books.  "  If  the  King  of  Egypt,"  ran  the  sacred 
message,  "  comes  begging  for  any  help,  refuse 
him  not  your  friendship  ;  nevertheless,  ye  shall 
not  aid  him  with  a  multitude.  If  ye  do,  ye 
shall  have  troubles  and  dangers." 

A  grave  discussion  followed  as  to  what  could 
26 


EGYPT    AND    ROME 

be  done.  If  King  Ptolemy  was  not  to  be  "  aided 
with  a  multitude,"  how  could  he  be  restored  ? 
It  was  suggested  that  Lentulus  Spinther  should 
still  be  entrusted  with  the  task,  but  that  he 
should  only  take  with  him  two  lictors,  confiding 
in  the  majesty  of  the  Roman  name  to  overawe 
the  Alexandrians.  Others  wished  Pompey  to 
undertake  the  duty,  similarly  escorted.  It  was 
suspected,  however,  that  Pompey  would  not 
care  for  the  commission,  stripped  of  all  its 
accompaniments  of  material  power. 

So  we  find  the  question  still  being  debated  in 
the  Roman  Senate  in  January  55,  nearly  three 
years  after  Auletes  had  fled  from  Alexandria, 
with  Cicero  supporting  Lentulus  Spinther, 
Clodius  attacking  Pompey,  and  the  aristocratic 
party  endeavouring  to  gain  time  by  the  use  of  all 
the  resources  of  religion,  unlucky  days,  holidays, 
etcetera,  which  could  be  twisted  to  make  ridicu- 
lous interruptions  of  public  business  in  Rome. 
We  find  also  Lentulus  in  Cilicia  hesitating  to 
accept  the  advice  which  Cicero  had  given  him  in 
the  previous  July  to  settle  the  matter  by  putting 
the  king  in  Ptolemais  (Acre),  while  proceeding 
himself  with  his  fleet  and  army  to  Alexandria. 
Cicero's  plan,  which  he  claimed  to  be  welcome  to 
Pompey,  would  have  got  over  the  difiiculty 
raised  by  the  Sibylline  oracle.  But  Lentulus 
could  not  bring  himself  to  adopt  it.  Possibly 
there  was  no  offer  of  gold  from  Auletes  to  bring 

27 


CLEOPATRA    OF    EGYPT 

about  his  restoration  by  a  man  whom  he  wished 
to  see  replaced  by  Pompey. 

In  the  spring  of  55  the  comedy,  which  must 
have  been  a  weary  performance  for  the  exiled 
king,  came  to  an  abrupt  end.  As  one  result  of 
the  famous  conference  at  Luca  the  previous  year, 
when  Julius  Caesar,  Pompey,  and  Crassus  agreed 
to  form  a  triumvirate  to  divide  the  spoils  of  Rome 
between  them,  Aulus  Gabinius,  the  proconsular 
governor  of  Syria,  received  permission  to  set 
Auletes  on  his  throne  again.  Only  one  formality 
remained  to  complete  the  business.  Auletes, 
still  in  Ephesus,  promised  Gabinius  a  bribe  of 
ten  thousand  talents  (£21,400,000).  "  Gabinius," 
remarks  Plutarch,  "  was  somewhat  afraid  of  the 
war,  but  was  hugely  taken  by  the  ten  thousand 
talents."  The  proconsul,  indeed,  was  bankrupt, 
like  so  many  Roman  nobles  of  his  time.  Like 
so  many  of  them,  too,  he  was  a  brave  soldier,  a 
good  speaker,  and  an  utter  profligate.  "  A 
Semiramis  "  is  Cicero's  contemptuous  description 
of  him.  With  his  instructions  from  the  tri- 
umvirs, of  whom  Pompey  and  Crassus  were  now 
consuls  for  the  year,  and  the  promise  of  ten 
thousand  talents,  Gabinius  could  not  hesitate. 
He  had  no  scruples  about  inventing  a  pretext  for 
attacking  the  existing  government  of  Egypt,  and 
began  his  march  to  the  frontier,  sending  Antony 
and  his  cavalry  in  advance  of  the  main  army  to 
secure  the  Isthmus  of  Suez. 

28 


CHAPTER  II 

Cleopatra's  father 

When  Ptolemy  Auletes  quitted  Alexandria  in 
the  year  58,  either  driven  out  or  else  flying  in 
alarm  at  the  indignation  of  his  subjects  over  the 
annexation  of  Cyprus  by  his  Roman  friends,  he 
left  behind  him  his  entire  family,  six  in  number. 
So  far  all  the  authorities,  ancient  and  modern, 
are  in  agreement.  They  agree  also  as  to  the 
identity  of  five  out  of  the  six  persons  in  that 
family.  There  were  three  daughters,  Berenike,. 
Cleopatra,  and  Arsinoe  ;  and  two  infant  sons, 
both  named  Ptolemy  according  to  the  custom  of 
the  family.  The  sixth  person  was  a  womain 
named  Cleopatra  Tryphaena,  who  is  described  by 
some  as  the  king's  eldest  daughter,  by  others  as 
his  wife.  The  existence  of  a  daughter  of  this 
name  is  guaranteed  only  by  a  fragment  of  Por- 
phyry, a  writer  of  the  third  century  a.d.  ;  yet  it 
has  been  accepted  by  most  modern  historians  in 
spite  of  its  being  imknown  to  Dion  Cassius  and 
Strabo  and  unmentioned  by  any  other  ancient 
author.  That  Ptolemy's  wife  was  named  Cleo- 
patra   Tryphaena    is    disputed    by    none ;     but 

29 


CLEOPATRA   OF   EGYPT 

Egyptologists,  influenced  by  the  fact  that  her 
name  disappears  from  public  documents  and  from 
all  inscriptions  (except  one  on  the  pylon  and 
colonnade  of  the  forecourt  of  the  temple  at  Edfu) 
after  the  year  69,  have  for  the  most  part  concluded 
that  she  died  in  that  year,  and  that  the  Cleopatra 
Tryphaena  who  was  alive  in  58  must  have  been 
some  one  else,  namely,  the  daughter  mentioned 
by  Porphyry. 

Another  point  arises  out  of  this  question  of  the 
death  of  Ptolemy's  queen.  Berenike  is  universally 
admitted  to  be  the  daughter  of  the  Cleopatra 
Tryphaena  whom  Ptolemy  married  near  the 
beginning  of  his  reign.  If  her  mother  died  in  69, 
another  mother  must  be  found  for  the  four 
children,  Cleopatra,  Arsinoe,  and  the  two  little 
Ptolemies.  The  four  would  then  become  only 
half-sisters  and  half-brothers  to  Berenike,  and 
have  been  even  stigmatised  as  "  illegitimate  " 
children  of  Ptolemy  Auletes,  for  which  there  is 
no  evidence  whatever.  As  we  do  not  know  that 
the  queen-mother  Cleopatra  Tryphaena  died  in 
69,  as  we  do  know  that  a  Cleopatra  Tryphaena 
began  to  rule  with  Berenike  after  the  expulsion  or 
flight  of  Auletes,  and  as  we  know  that  Auletes 
recognised  his  daughter  Cleopatra  and  his  son 
Ptolemy  XIV  in  his  will  as  legitimate  heirs  to  the 
throne,  it  seems  best  to  hold  the  view,  until 
distinct  disproof  is  forthcoming,  that  the  Cleopatra 
Tryphaena  left  behind  him  by  Auletes  in  58  was 

30 


CLEOPATRA'S   FATHER 

his  "  sister-wife,"  and  that  all  five  children  were 
hers.* 

The  uncertainty  as  to  the  mother  of  the  children 
of  Auletes  extends  also  to  their  ages.  Berenike 
cannot  well  have  been  more  than  eighteen  in  58, 
and  may  have-  been  younger.  Cleopatra's  birth- 
year  is  usually  assigned  to  69  or  68,  making  her 
about  eleven  at  the  time  of  her  father's  exile.f 
Arsinoe  may  have  been  born  between  68  and  65, 
the  elder  Ptolemy  in  62  or  61,  and  the  younger  not 
later  than  59  B.C. 

As  it  was  necessary  to  replace  the  absent 
Ptolemy  XIII  (whose  disappearance,  ciccording  to 
some  writers,  caused  his  subjects  to  imagine  him 
dead),  the  Alexandrians  took  the  natural  step  of 
putting  the  queen-mother  at  the  head  of  affairs. 
After  a  very  brief  reign  she  died.  It  is  a  curious 
fact  that  the  one  inscription  which  has  been  found 
bearing  her  name  with  that  of  Ptolemy  later  than 
59  is  certainly  incorrect,  for  in  December  57  she 
was  no  longer  alive.  But  the  building  of  great 
temples,  like  that  at  Edfu,  begun  under  the  Third 
Ptolemy  and  finished  under  the  Thirteenth,  went 
on  irrespective  of  the  lives  and  deaths  of  kings ; 

*  See  Appendix  B,  where  is  translated  the  greater  part 
of  M.  Bouch6-Leclercq'3  most  instructive  note  on  the  subject 
in  his  "  Histoire  des  Lagides." 

t  The  supposed  disparity  in  age  between  Berenike  and 
Cleopatra  has  been  regarded  as  evidence  of  their  being 
daughters  of  different  mothers.  But,  even  if  such  a  disparity 
were  ^ood  evidence,  we  do  not  know  the  exact  ages  of  the 
two  girls. 

31 


CLEOPATRA    OF    EGYPT 

and  no  doubt  it  took  a  long  time  for  news  to  travel 
from  Alexandria  through  the  country,  so  that  the 
writer  of  the  inscriptions  at  Edfu  may  not  have 
known  of  the  queen's  death  when  he  was  at  work. 
On  her  mother's  death  the  Princess  Berenike 
mounted  the  throne,  to  which  her  claims  were  un- 
doubtedly strengthened  by  her  position  as  only 
adult  among  the  royal  children.  There  seems  to 
have  been  no  protest  against  her  accession,  and 
endeavours  were  made  to  consolidate  her  power. 
A  deputation  was  sent  to  Italy,  with  what  result 
we  have  seen.  It  was  impossible  for  Berenike, 
though  aided  by  her  councillors,  to  compete  with 
her  father  at  Rome.  Perhaps  hopes  were  enter- 
tained, however,  that  the  Romans  would  hesitate 
to  disturb  Egypt  if  they  saw  it  settling  down 
imder  the  peaceful  and  popularly  recognised 
government  of  a  national  princess  and  her  consort. 
It  remained  to  find  the  consort.  The  two  little 
Ptolemies,  to  whom  Egyptian  royal  custom 
pointed,  were  far  too  young,  the  elder  being  no 
more  than  five.  There  being  no  other  Lagidae, 
it  was  natural  to  look  to  the  Syrian  family  of  the 
Seleukidae,  which  had  several  times  intermarried 
with  the  Lagidae  in  the  past.  Berenike 's  ad- 
visers, after  two  unsuccessful  offers  to  undoubted 
scions  of  the  family,  at  last  discovered  a  Seleukos 
who  claimed  to  be  of  the  Syrian  blood  royal,  and 
may  have  been  a  younger  brother  of  An- 
tiochos  XIII,  the  last  King  of  Syria,  dispossessed 

32 


CLEOPATRA'S    FATHER 

of  his  realm  by  the  Roman  annexation.  He  was 
brought  to  Alexandria,  where  he  pleased  neither 
Berenike  nor  her  subjects.  The  Alexandrians, 
who  were  as  prompt  in  inventing  nicknames  as 
the  modem  Parisians  (not  unlike  them  in  this 
respect  alone),  for  some  reason  called  him 
Kybiosaktes,  "  the  Saltfish  Peddler."  Berenike, 
who  resembled  all  the  princesses  of  the  house  of 
Lagos  in  possessing  a  strong  will  and  the  ability 
to  act  promptly,  showed  her  dislike  in  still  more 
pronounced  fashion.  If  we  may  believe  Strabo, 
a  few  days'  experience  of  the  low  and  ignoble 
manners  of  Seleukos  disgusted  her  so  much  that 
she  had  him  strangled.  At  any  rate,  he  dis- 
appeared, and  a  successor  was  looked  for  to  sit 
beside  Berenike  on  the  throne  of  Egypt. 

There  was  in  the  city  of  Komana  in  Pontus  a 
celebrated  temple  of  the  goddess  Ma,  the  Tauric 
Artemis,  the  high  priest  of  which  was  a  young  man 
of  the  name  of  Archelaos.  His  father,  of  the  same 
name,  was  a  general  of  Mithridates  the  Great,  and 
a  very  fine  soldier,  who  had  passed  over  to  the  side 
of  Sulla  before  the  beginning  of  Rome's  second 
war  with  Mithridates.  Archelaos  the  younger 
was  a  friend  and  protege  of  Pompey,  who  had 
given  him  his  priestly  post,  one  little  inferior  to 
any  of  the  Asiatic  princedoms.  He  possibly 
claimed  to  be  a  son  of  Mithridates  himself  (the 
number  of  that  king's  illegitimate  children  being 
large),   and  his  ambitions  were   by    no    means 

33  2 


CLEOPATRA    OF    EGYPT 

limited  to  the  priesthood.  Paying  a  visit  to  the 
headquarters  of  Gabinius  in  Syria,  Archelaos 
struck  up  a  friendship  with  the  young  cavalty 
officer  Antony.  Then,  while  still  in  Syria,  he 
attracted  the  attention  of  the  match-makers  of 
Alexandria,  and,  probably  without  asking  leave 
from  Gabinius — for  the  Roman  governor  had 
already  forbidden  one  of  the  Seleukidae  to  accept 
the  offer  of  Berenike's  hand — ^he  took  his  depar- 
ture for  Alexandria  toward  the  end  of  the  year  56. 
On  his  arrival  he  pleased  the  Princess  Berenike, 
was  accepted  by  her  as  a  bridegroom,  and  began 
a  brief  reign  of  six  months  at  her  side. 

It  has  already  been  said  that  Gabinius  had  no 
difficulty  in  inventing  a  pretext  for  attacking 
Egypt  as  soon  as  he  had  made  up  his  mind  to  do 
so.  The  Egyptians  appear  to  have  been  making 
additions  to  their  fleet,  which  was  a  natural  pro- 
ceeding for  a  largely  maritime  and  commercial 
nation.  Gabinius,  however,  brought  an  accusa- 
tion against  Archelaos  of  plotting  to  combine  with 
Rome's  old  enemies,  the  Pirates,  who  still  re- 
mained the  terror  of  the  Mediterranean,  in  spite 
of  the  way  in  which  Pompey  had  swept  them  off 
the  seas  in  67  B.C.,  acting  upon  the  extraordinary 
commission  which  the  same  Gabinius,  then 
tribune  of  the  people,  had  procured  for  him. 
Archelaos  was  given  no  opportunity  of  answering 
the  accusation  or  justifying  his  shipbuilding  before 
the  advance  of  the  Roman  army  against  him  began. 

34 


CLEOPATRA'S    FATHER 

The  march  from  the  Syrian  town  of  Gaza  to 
the  Egyptian  frontier  was  always  accounted  very 
difficult,  but  it  did  not  prove  so  difficult  to  the 
Romans  now  as  many  invading  armies  had  found 
it,  owing  to  the  admirable  way  in  which  Antony 
pushed  ahead  with  his  cavalry  and  occupied  the 
Isthmus  of  Suez.  The  frontier  was  guarded  by 
the  town  and  fortress  of  Pelusium  (the  Sin  of  the 
Old  Testament),  lying  on  the  right  bank  of  the 
easternmost  mouth  of  the  Nile.  The  fortress 
was  occupied  by  a  Jewish  garrison  in  Egyptian 
pay,  who  yielded  now  to  the  temptations  of  their 
fellow-countryman  Antipater,  father  of  Herod 
the  Great,  attached  to  the  invading  army  in  that 
capacity  of  purveyor  in  which  men  of  his  race 
have  so  often  made  their  fortunes.  The  strong- 
hold was  handed  over  to  the  Romans  without 
a  struggle.  An  atrocious  sequel  was  narrowly 
averted  by  what  Plutarch  calls  Antony's  "  love 
of  distinction,  proving  advantageous  even  to  his 
enemies."  "  For  when  Ptolemy  entered  Pe- 
lusium," he  says,  "  and  was  moved  by  his  passion 
and  hatred  to  massacre  the  Egyptians,  Antony 
stood  in  his  way  and  stopped  him."* 

Antony  won  further  credit  for  himself  during 
the  Roman  advance  from  Pelusium  to  Alexandria, 

*  Ptolemy  would  therefore  appear  to  have  been  accom- 
panied by  some  troops  of  his  own,  as  indeed  appears  from  the 
wprds  of  Caesar,  "  de  Bello  Civili,"  III.  no.  Egyptian 
princes — and  princesses — in  exile  usually  seem  to  have  been 
able  to  collect  troops  in  Syria. 

35 


CLEOPATRA    OF    EGYPT 

handling  his  cavalry  in  such  a  manner  as  to  take 
the  enemy  in  the  rear  and  secure  the  victory  for 
the  infantry  of  Gabinius,  Archelaos  was  not 
without  some  of  the  courage  which  had  marked 
his  father ;  but  the  Egyptians,  or  rather  the 
heterogeneous  army  which  fought  under  the 
Egyptian  flag,  were  no  match  for  the  Romans. 
It  was  impossible  to  check  the  invasion,  which 
was  probably  faciUtated  by  desertions  to  the 
cause  of  Ptolemy  as  he  drew  nearer  to  Alexandria. 
Dion  Cassius  represents  Archelaos  as  being  put 
to  death  by  Gabinius  after  the  entry  into  Alex- 
andria. Plutarch  says  that  he  was  slain  in  battle, 
and  that  Antony,  finding  the  body  of  his  former 
friend,  "  interred  it  with  all  honours  and  in  kingly 
fashion."  The  Egyptian  capital  fell  quickly  after 
this,  for  the  troops  of  Archelaos  had  refused  to 
throw  up  entrenchments,  saying  that  such  work 
v/as  suitable  for  labourers,  not  for  soldiers. 

Early  in  April*  Ptolemy  Auletes  was  once 
more  King  of  Egypt,  signalising  his  return  by 
massacres  which  he  would  have  begun  at  Pelu- 
sium  but  for  Antony's  intervention.  The 
unfortunate  young  queen  Berenike  was  one  of 
the  first  to  suffer  at  her  father's  hands,  and  was 
put  to  death  after  a  reign  of  about  two  years. 
The  rest  of  Ptolemy's  family,  being  too  young  to 

*  The  date  is  approximately  fixed  by  Cicero's  letter  to 
Atticus  on  April  23rd,  B.C.  55,  in  which  he  mentions  the 
report  current  at  Puteoli  of  Ptolemy's  return  to  his  kingdom 
and  asks  for  confirmation  ("  Ad  Atticum,"  IV.  10). 

36 


CLEOPATRA'S    FATHER 

be  implicated  in  the  revolt  against  his  rule,  were 
spared  to  carry  on  the  succession  to  the  throne 
for  which  he  had  fought  so  hard  with  all  the 
weapons  which  a  man  of  his  character  could 
handle.  It  was  now  that  the  fourteen-year-old 
Cleopatra  first  met  the  Roman  on  whose  career 
she  was  destined  to  exercise  so  disastrous  an 
influence  ;  and,  if  we  may  believe  Appian,  she 
now  already  attracted  the  attention  of  the  very 
susceptible  soldier. 

Ptolemy  lived  to  enjoy  his  power  for  another 
four  years.  Records  of  him  at  this  period  are 
scanty,  being  confined  to  allusions  in  the  Greek 
and  Latin  writers.  His  chief  occupation  was 
the  raising  of  money  to  pay  off  the  enormous 
liabilities  which  he  had  incurred  toward  his 
restorers.  As  it  was  obvious  that  he  could 
never  be  anything  but  an  unpopular  ruler,  it  was 
necessary  for  the  Romans  to  see  that  he  was  kept 
on  the  throne  to  which  they  had  brought  him 
back,  Gabinius,  therefore,  when  he  evacuated 
Egypt,  left  behind  him  some  troops  as  a  body- 
guard to  the  king,  to  take  the  place  of  the  Mace- 
donian household  troops  of  the  earlier  Ptolemies. 
These  Gahiniani  milites,  whom  Julius  Caesar 
was  later  to  find  so  troublesome,  were  chiefly 
Gallic  and  German  mounted  auxiliaries,  but 
included  also  some  Roman  infantry  who  had 
fought  under  the  command  of  Pompey.  They 
took  readily  to  their  new  duties  and  developed 

37 


CLEOPATRA    OF    EGYPT 

all  the  manners  of  Praetorians.  Seven  years 
later  Caesar  finds  them  grown  accustomed  to  the 
life  and  licence  of  Alexandria,  oblivious  of  the 
name  and  discipline  of  Rome,  and  provided  with 
wives  from  their  adopted  country.  Reinforced 
by  the  mercenaries  whom  Egypt  collected  under 
her  standard,  they  were,  according  to  his  descrip- 
tion, in  the  habit  of  "  demanding  the  death  of 
friends  of  the  king,  of  pillaging  private  property 
to  supplement  their  pay,  and  of  exiling  and 
recalling  whom  they  pleased,  following  the  old 
tradition  of  the  Alexandrian  army" — that  is  to 
say,  the  former  Macedonian  household  troops.* 

Relying  on  the  protection  afforded  by  this 
bodyguard,  Ptolemy  set  about  collecting  the 
money  to  meet  his  debts,  including  the  ten 
thousand  talents  paid  to  Gabinius.  This  sum 
had  nominally  been  borrowed  by  the  king  from 
a  Roman  money-lender  named  Rabirius  Pos- 
tumus,  but  the  real  lender  appears  to  have  been 
Julius  Caesar,  whose  appointment  in  Gaul  had 
freed  him  from  bankruptcy.  Cicero  in  his 
defence  of  Rabirius  makes  great  capital  of  "  the 
incredible  generosity "  toward  his  client  of 
Caesar  ;  and,  as  will  be  seen  later,  when  Caesar 
came  to  Alexandria  he  claimed  repayment  of 
the    17,500,000    drachmaef    (£700,000)    lent    to 

*  Caesar,  "  de  Bello  Civili,"  III.  1 10.  See  also  Mahaffy, 
"  History  of  Egypt,"  p.  241. 

I  These  are  Plutarch's  figures  ("  Caesar,"  48). 
38 


CLEOPATRA'S    FATHER 

Ptolemy  Auletes.  For  the  present,  unable  to 
pay  Rabirius  in  cash,  Ptolemy  made  him  Con- 
troller of  Taxes,  in  order  that  he  might  himself 
see  to  the  collection  of  what  was  owing  to  him. 
The  money-lender  made  himself  so  unpopular  in 
his  post  that  at  length  he  was  compelled  to  fly 
for  his  life,  leaving  behind  him  even  his  clothes. 
He  had  not  found  his  connection  with  the 
Egyptian  monarch  profitable.  Having  already 
lent  money  to  him  in  59,  when  Ptolemy  was 
buying  Rome's  recognition  of  his  title  to  the 
throne,  Rabirius  had  increased  his  risk  later  for 
fear  of  not  getting  back  his  original  loan.  Now 
he  returned  from  Egypt  to  his  infuriated  country- 
men, who  reviled  him  for  having  worn  the  uniform 
of  his  Egyptian  office — "  un-Roman  dress,"  they 
called  it — and  proceeded  to  prosecute  him 
together  with  Gabinius  for  their  behaviour. 
Gabinius  got  off  on  the  charge  of  "  violation  of 
law  and  impiety  in  invading  Egypt  without  a 
decree  of  the  Senate  and  contrary  to  the  Sibylline 
Books,"  as  Appian  puts  it,  but  was  condemned, 
on  the  charge  of  malversation,  to  pay  a  fine  of 
ten  thousand  talents,  the  amount  which  he  had 
received  from  Ptolemy.  Rabirius  was  also  con- 
demned, Cicero  being  counsel  for  the  defence 
both  in  his  case  and  in  the  second  affair  of 
Gabinius.  The  orator  took  up  these  cases,  no 
doubt,  to  please  the  triumvirs,  but  was  un- 
fortunate   in,  meeting    a    wave    of    indignation 

39 


CLEOPATRA    OF   EGYPT 

against  the  way  in  which  the  Roman  name  had 
been  soiled  in  Egypt. 

While  Gabinius  and  Rabirius  went  into  exile 
to  lament  their  dealings  with  Ptolemy  Auletes, 
the  king,  finding  it  impossible  to  extract  from 
exhausted  Egypt  the  money  to  cover  his 
liabilities,  left  a  great  part  of  his  debts,  with  his 
kingdom,  to  his  children.  In  the  summer  of  51 
he  died,*  having  drawn  up  a  will  in  which  he 
named  as  heirs  his  elder  living  daughter  Cleo- 
patra and  his  elder  son  Ptolemy,  the  fourteenth 
of  the  name.  He  made  the  Roman  people  his 
executors  ;  and,  as  we  are  told  by  the  author  of 
the  book  on  the  Alexandrian  War  included  in 
the  works  of  Caesar,  called  on  them  to  see  that 
his  heirs  were  not  changed.  One  copy  of  this 
will  he  had  kept  in  Alexandria.  The  other 
he  had  sent  to  Rome  to  be  deposited  in  the 
Aerarium,  or  treasury  of  the  Temple  of  Saturn  ; 
but,  owing  to  the  disturbed  condition  of  affairs 
at  Rome,  it  was  sent  instead  to  the  house  of  his 
friend  Pompey. 

Cleopatra's  father  is  commonly  recognised  as 
one  of  the  most  disreputable  of  the  Ptolemies. 
There  is  no  recorded  act  of  his  which  calls  for 
praise,  unless  it  be  his  solicitude  on  account  of 

*  On  August  1st,  B.C.  51,  we  find  Caelius,  Ptolemy's  former 
acquaintance,  writing  from  Rome  to  Cicero,  then  proconsul 
in  Cilicia  :  "  We  are  told,  and  the  news  seems  certain,  that 
the  King  of  Egypt  is  dead"  (Cicero,  "  Ad  Familiares,"  YIII. 
4.)     Ptolemy  perhaps  died,  therefore,  in  Jui4e  or  early  July. 

40 


CLEOPATRA'S    FATHER 

his  younger  children — which  is  a  small  set-oft 
against  his  execution  of  his  eldest  daughter. 
He  managed  to  keep  on  good  terms  with  the 
native  priesthood,  and  temple-construction  and 
decoration  went  on  during  his  reign.  But  the 
building  of  temples  in  Egypt  was  no  more  a 
proof  of  virtue  than  the  building  of  churches  in 
the  Middle  Ages.  The  Pharaohs  of  every 
dynasty,  down  to  those  of  Mendes  and  Seben- 
nytos,  between  the  Persian  and  Macedonian 
conquests  of  Egypt,  inherited  a  taste  for  building 
with  the  throne  itself ;  and  the  Ptolemies 
imitated  the  example  of  their  predecessors  in 
this  as  in  so  many  other  respects.  Such  work 
as  Ptolemy  XIH  has  left  behind  him  at  Edfu 
(where  he  followed  among  others  one  of  the 
worst  of  his  ancestors,  Ptolemy  VII),  Philae, 
Kom  Ombo,  and  elsewhere,  testifies  only  to  the 
family  prudence  in  conciliating  native  religious 
sentiment. 

On  the  other  hand,  Ptolemy  XIII  has  with 
seeming  justice  been  accused  of  most  of  the 
crimes  and  vices  in  the  long  catalogue  of  those 
which  disgraced  the  characters  of  his  ancestors, 
while  he  failed  to  redeem  his  lack  of  morals  by 
any  such  artistic  taste  as  was  displayed,  for 
example,  by  Ptolemy  IV,  author  of  a  play  called 
"  Adonis,"  and  builder  of  a  memorial  chapel  to 
Homer.  His  only  known  polite  accomplishment 
was   that   which   gained   him   his   nickname   of 

41  2* 


CLEOPATRA    OF    EGYPT 

Auletes.*  He  was  very  proud  of  his  skill  on 
the  flute,  and  is  said  to  have  entered  for  public 
competitions,  thus  anticipating  the  conduct  of 
Nero,  the  Imperial  singer.  The  name  of  Auletes 
has  clung  to  him  in  history,  but  the  titles  which 
he  assumed  himself  were  Philopator  Phila- 
delphos,  both  of  them  commonly  assumed 
separately  by  the  Lagidae,  and  Neos  Dionysos. 
Ptolemy  IV  had  already  called  himself  Dionysos. 
Both  kings  appear  to  have  attempted  to  deserve 
the  name  by  their  indulgence  in  wine.  Lucian 
tells  a  story  illustrative  of  the  Thirteenth 
Ptolemy's  enthusiasm  for  his  patron  god.  In 
his  reign  the  Dionysiac  festival  was  celebrated 
with  great  orgies.  On  one  occasion  the  Platonic 
philosopher  Demetrios,  who  was  a  water-drinker, 
was  the  only  man  in  Egypt  who  did  not  wear 
the  women's  clothes  prescribed  for  men  during 
the  rather  indecorous  festival.  He  was  de- 
nounced to  the  king,  and  only  saved  his  life  by 
getting  drunk  early  in  the  morning,  putting  on 
effeminate  Tarentine  robes,  and  dancing  in 
.  public  to  the  sound  of  cymbals.  This  display  of 
religious  fervour  appeased  the  New  Dionysos. 

For  this  Ptolemy's  morals  and  the  way  in  which 
he  governed  his  country  it  is  impossible  to  find 
any  excuse.  But  there  is  some  for  his  attitude 
toward  Rome.     He  was  a  weak  vassal  king  deal- 

*  Athenaeus  sums  him  up  as  "  not  a  man,  but  a  mere 
flute-player  and  juggler." 

42 


CLEOPATRA'S   FATHER 

ing  with  a  powerful  and  greedy  suzerain,  and  had, 
as  has  already  been  said,  only  one  means  of 
keeping  that  suzerain's  hands  off  his  kingdom. 
It  is  hard  to  imagine  how  a  virtuous  Ptolemy 
would  have  dealt  with  Rome.  If  Cleopatra 
showed  herself  something  of  a  stateswoman  in 
her  attitude  toward  the  lords  of  the  world,  we 
cannot  deny  her  father  all  credit  for  diplomatic 
talent.  His  enormous  expenditure  of  money, 
leading  to  the  impoverishment  of  a  naturally 
wealthy  country,  doubtless  had  as  its  first  object 
the  preservation  of  his  own  worthless  life  and 
rule ;  but  it  also  temporarily  prolonged  the 
existence  of  Egypt  as  an  independent  state. 
Dr.  Mahaffy  goes  so  far  as  to  see  in  the  will  of 
Ptolemy  XIII  evidence  of  "  a  strong  feeling  for 
his  family  and  perhaps  even  for  his  country."* 
This  is  assuredly  to  give  the  Devil  no  less  than  his 
due.  The  chief  impression  left  on  the  mind  by 
the  last  ruling  King  of  Egypt  is  that  of  a  pitiful 
blackguard  and  debauchee. 

*  "  History  of  Egypt,"  p.  236. 


43 


CHAPTER    III 

CLEOPATRA   AND    PTOLEMY   XIV 

"  Queen,  Lady  of  the  Two  Lands,  Qlauapatrat, 
Divine  Daughter,  her  Father  loving,"*  Such  is 
the  title  under  which,  in  the  hieroglyphic  inscrip- 
tions of  her  own  country,  appears  the  woman 
known  in  the  history  of  the  world  as  Cleopatra 
the  Great,  Unhappily  it  is  almost  true  to  say 
that  the  Egyptian  records  of  her  reign  give  us 
very  little  more  about  her  than  this  title.  Were 
it  not  for  the  historians  of  the  Roman  Empire, 
writing  in  Greek  or  in  Latin,  her  memory 
would  long  ago  have  been  forgotten  by  all  save 
archaeologists. 

In  the  two  preceding  chapters  there  may  be 
found  all  that  can  be  ascertained  about  Cleopatra's 
childhood ;  which  reduces  itself  to  Appian's 
statement  that  she  was  at  Alexandria  and  was 
seen  by  Marcus  Antonius  at  the  time  of  her  father's 
restoration  in  55  b.c.  We  know  also  that  she 
was  born  about  69  or  68  B.C.,  probably  in  69. 
Beyond  this,  all  concerning  her  early  days  must 

*  Budge,  "  History  of  Egypt,"  VIII.  p.  88. 

44 


CLEOPATRA    AND    PTOLEMY    XIV 

necessarily  be  a  matter  of  deduction  or  conjec- 
ture. Her  birth  took  place  in  the  twelfth  year 
of  her  father's  reign.  When  she  was  about  ten, 
he  succeeded  in  obtaining  Rome's  recognition 
of  himself  as  King  of  Egypt,  but  almost  im- 
mediately he  was  forced  by  popular  outcry  to 
leave  Alexandria,  abandoning  his  family  with 
his  kingdom.  At  his  restoration  the  four 
youngest  members  of  the  family  were  still  alive, 
Cleopatra,  the  eldest,  being  about  fourteen  years 
old.  The  greater  part  of  her  fourteen  years  must 
have  been  spent  in  the  vast  palace  at  Alexandria, 
a  regular  fortress  as  well  as  a  dwelling-place,  like 
all  the  palaces  of  the  Pharaohs  who  preceded  the 
Macedonian  dynasty  in  Egypt.  The  harem-life 
here  was,  like  almost  everything  else  under  the 
Ptolemies,  a  blend  of  Greek  and  Egyptian.  The 
conditions  no  longer  prevailed  which  had  made 
Ramses  II,  for  instance,  the  father  of  two  hundred 
children.*  But  the  apartments  of  the  "  Secluded  " 
continued  to  deserve  their  name  ;  and  thanks  to 
an  institution  of  the  Fourth  Ptolemy,  whom 
the  early  historians  made  out  to  have  been  the 
most  criminally  worthless  of  his  whole  family, 
life  in  them  had  one  feature  usually  associated 
with  Oriental  despotism  which  had  been  lacking 

•  The  funeral  stele  of  the  priest  Pasirenptah,  in  the  British 
Museum,  speaks  of  Ptolemy  XIII,  at  his  formal  coronation, 
landing  at  Memphis  and  coming  into  the  temple  of  Qe  "  with 
his  nobles,  his  wives,  and  his  children."  But  the  language 
of  such  inscriptions  is  archaic  and  conventional. 

45 


CLEOPATRA    OF    EGYPT 

under  the  Pharaohs.  The  royal  princes  in  the 
old  days  had  been  brought  up  in  the  Great  House 
of  the  "  Good  God,"  their  father,  under  the  care 
of  high  Court  officials  known  by  the  curious 
name  of  their  "  nurses."  Ptolemy  IV  introduced 
the  custom  of  giving  the  children  eunuchs  to 
look  after  them,  and  we  find  these  eunuchs  called 
by  the  classical  writers  nutritii,  which  recalls  the 
old  name.  The  eunuchs  of  her  brother  Ptolemy 
XIV  and  her  sister  Arsinoe,  Potheinos  and 
Ganymedes,  figure  in  history  ;  but  we  hear  of 
no  such  nutritius  in  the  case  of  Cleopatra,  doubt- 
less because  she  emancipated  herself  early  from 
such  control. 

That  Cleopatra  received  what  is  called  a  good 
general  education  might  be  gathered  from  the 
fact  that  she  acquired  such  an  ascendancy  over 
Julius  Caesar  and  Antony,  one  a  man  of  genuine, 
the  other  of  superficial,  culture.  She  was  un- 
doubtedly a  remarkable  linguist,  even  if  modern 
writers  are  justified  in  suspecting  the  ancients  of 
exaggerating  her  skill.  "  As  she  could  easily 
turn  her  tongue,  like  a  many-stringed  instru- 
ment, to  any  language  that  she  pleased,"  says 
Plutarch,  "  she  had  very  seldom  need  of  an 
interpreter  for  •  her  converse  with  barbarous 
peoples.  She  could  herself  speak  to  most,  such 
as  Ethiopians,  Troglodytes,  Hebrews,  Arabs, 
Syrians,  Medes,  Parthians.  She  is  said  also  to 
have  learnt  the  language  of  many  other  peoples, 

46 


CLEOPATRA  AND  PTOLEMY  XIV 

although  the  kings  her  predecessors  had  not 
even  taken  the  pains  to  learn  the  Egyptian 
language,  and  some  of  them  had  even  forgotten 
the  Macedonian  dialect."* 

Plutarch's  testimony  to  the  appearance  of 
Cleopatra,  and  the  nature  of  her  fascination,  has 
been  received  in  modern  days  with  less  suspicion 
than  what  he  says  about  her  gift  of  tongues.  - 
Whereas  Dion  Cassius  describes  her  as  "  most 
exceedingly  beautiful  of  women,"  the  older  his- 
torian writes  in  the  passage  immediately  preced- 
ing that  quoted  above  :  "  Her  beauty,  it  is  said, 
was  not  altogether  beyond  comparison,  nor  such 
that  no  one  could  look  on  her  without  being 
struck  by  it.  But  familiarity  with  her  had  an 
irresistible  charm,  and  the  attraction  of  her 
person,  combined  with  her  persuasive  manner 
of  speech,  and  with  the  peculiar  character  which 
was  evident  in  all  that  she  said  or  did,  was  some- 
thing bewitching.  There  was  a  sweetness  also 
in  the  mere  sound  of  her  voice." 

Concerning  her  general  character,  there  will  be 
an  opportunity  to  speak  later  on  ;  but  it  may  be 
remarked  here  that,  if  the  Court  of  Alexandria 
and  the  house  of  the  Lagidae  at  this  period  in 
their  history  had  been  able  to  produce  a  good 
woman,  it  would  have  been  a  miracle.  Constant 
in-breeding,  while  not  impairing  the  strength, 
seems  to  have  eliminated  whatever  good  there 

*  Plutarch,  "  Antony,"  27. 
47 


CLEOPATRA    OF   EGYPT 

was  originally  in  this  Macedonian  family.  The 
day  has  passed  when  it  was  necessary  to  insist 
upon  the  non-Egyptian,  and  purely  Greek,  blood 
of  the  Lagidae.  Cleopatra's  father  was  an 
illegitimate  son  of  the  Tenth  Ptolemy,  whose 
father,  Ptolemy  IX,  was  fifth  in  descent  from 
Ptolemy  the  son  of  Lagos,  the  prudent  and 
amiable  general  of  Alexander  the  Great.  Apart 
from  the  fact  that  the  mother  of  Ptolemy  Auletes 
is  unknown,*  and  from  the  doubt  entertained  by 
some  as  to  the  mother  of  the  four  younger 
children  of  Auletes,  there  can  be  no  hesitation  in 
describing  Cleopatra  as  wholly  Macedonian- 
•  Greek  by  race.  Those  who  would  look  for 
traces  of  Semitic  blood  in  her  have  nothing  to 
rely  upon  except  the  fantastic  argument  drawn 
from  the  length  of  her  nose.  The  only  intruder 
into  the  Lagid  house  since  its  foundation  was  a 
Syrian  princess  ;  but  she  was  the  Fifth  Ptolemy's 
wife,  Cleopatra  I,  daughter  of  Antiochos  the 
Great,  and  therefore  as  Greek  as  her  husband's 
family. 

In  this  genealogy  numbering  so  many  Ptolemies, 
Cleopatras,  Berenikes,  and  Arsinoes,  there  was 

*  Dr.  Mahaffy  suggests  ("  History  of  Egypt,"  p.  225,  n.  i) 
that  the  mother  of  Auletes  may  have  been  the  sister  Cleopatra 
whom  Ptolemy  X  Lathyros  was  forced  by  his  mother  to 
divorce  on  his  accession  to  the  throne.  Auletes  would 
then  be  in  Egyptian  eyes  the  illegitimate  son  of  Lathjrros 
and  Cleopatra,  not  being  born  in  the  purple.  But  this  would 
make  Auletes  over  thirty  on  his  accession,  which  is  all  against 
evidence. 

48 


CLEOPATRA    AND    PTOLEMY    XIV 

a  vastly  preponderating  majority  of  bad  people 
over  good.  After  the  first  of  the  family,  the 
son  of  Lagos  (though  the  scandal  of  his  time 
would  make  him  really  son  of  Philip  Amyntas, 
King  of  Macedon),  there  were  only  two  Ptolemies, 
the  Third  and  the  Seventh,  to  whom,  as  Sharpe 
says,  "  history  can  point  with  pleasure."  Among 
the  women  the  Syrian  Cleopatra  alone  stands 
out  as  admirable.  On  the  other  hand,  to  look 
only  at  the  direct  ancestors  of  our  Cleopatra 
and  to  neglect  all  crimes  but  family  murders, 
the  Second  Ptolemy  had  slain  two  brothers  ; 
the  Fourth  his  brother,  his  uncle,  and  possibly 
his  mother  ;  the  Ninth,  nicknamed  Physkon  or 
"  the  Bloated,"  his  son  and  his  infant  nephew  ; 
while  Auletes,  as  we  have  seen,  killed  his 
daughter  Berenike.  Cleopatra  III,  grandmother 
of  Auletes,  is  accused  of  having  killed  her  mother 
before  she  was  herself  put  to  death  by  her  younger 
son,  Ptolemy  Alexander,  with  some  irony  called 
Philoinctor,  "  loving  his  Mother."  Ordinary 
murders,  massacres,  cruel  misgovernment  and 
tyranny,  and  general  morality  of  a  kind  which 
almost  defies  description,  may  perhaps  seem 
venial  in  comparison  with  such  treatment  of 
kindred.  It  must  be  remembered,  of  course, 
that  hardly  one  of  the  Lagidae  lacked  enemies 
only  too  eager  to  heap  the  worst  accusations 
upon  him  or  her,  and  that  those  in  particular 
who  were  not  friendly  to  the  Jews  have  suffered 

49 


CLEOPATRA    OF    EGYPT 

through  the  undue  importance  attached  until 
recently  to  the  writings  of  Josephus,  to  whose 
good  opinion  the  only  passport  was  favour 
shown  to  the  men  of  his  race.  Yet  a  careful 
sifting  of  the  evidence  leaves  little  good  to 
be  said  for  the  character  of  the  Ptolemies,  out- 
wardly splendid  though  their  dominion  over 
Egypt  appeared. 

The  culture  of  the  Macedonian  kings  was  better 
than  their  morals,  two  of  them,  Ptolemy  II 
Philadelphos  and  Ptolemy  IV  Philopator,  to 
some  extent  redeeming  very  bad  reputations  by 
their  love  of  Greek  learning,  while  Ptolemy  III 
Euergetes  appealed  alike  to  Greek  savants  and 
to  Egyptian  priests,  and  at  the  same  time  comes 
down  to  history  a  virtuous  man  owing  to  the 
absence  of  scandalous  stories  about  his  private 
life.  For  the  most  part  the  literary  and  artistic 
sympathies  of  the  Lagidae  remained  Hellenic. 
The  Macedonian  rulers  at  Alexandria  became 
Egyptianised  more  slowly  than  the  Manchu 
rulers  at  Peking,  who  furnish  the  nearest  modern 
parallel  to  them,  have  become  Chinese.  Few  of 
the  Lagidae  even  learnt  the  Egyptian  tongue  ; 
and  Cleopatra,  acquainted  with  Egyptian  in 
addition  to  the  languages  of  some  of  the  neigh- 
bouring peoples,  is  a  striking  exception  in  her 
family.  They  adopted  the  Egyptian  royal  custom 
of  marriage  between  brother  and  sister  in  order 
to  preserve  the  purity  of  "  the  children  of  Amon- 

50 


CLEOPATRA  AND  PTOLEMY  XIV 

Ra,"  which  they  had  become,  hke  previous 
dynasties  of  Pharaohs,  by  mounting  the  throne 
of  Egypt,  From  the  time  of  Ptolemy  V 
Epiphanes  they  had  restored  the  old  custom  of 
coronation  at  Memphis  with  native  ceremonies, 
being  crowned,  after  the  proper  ablutions,  in 
the  Hall  of  the  Royal  Diadem,  with  the  white 
conical  cap  of  the  King  of  the  South  and  the 
red  crown  of  the  King  of  the  North,  and  there- 
after going  in  solemn  procession  to  the  temple 
of  their  father  Ra  to  receive  the  divine  influence 
shed  by  him  on  his  successors  and  representatives. 
The  principal  way  in  which  the  Ptolemies 
submitted  to  Egyptian  influence  was  in  the 
adoption  of  the  gods  of  the  country,  as  in  the 
case  of  Ra  the  Sun-god  at  the  coronation  cere- 
mony. As  far  as  possible  the  Egyptian  divinities 
were  identified  with  those  of  Greece,  a  process 
which  Alexander  the  Great  had  begun  with  the 
equation  of  Zeus  and  Amon,  Osiris  and  Dionysos. 
Thus  there  had  sprung  into  existence  a  whole 
"  bastard  pantheon,"*  in  whose  temples,  built 
in  many  cases  by  the  worshippers  themselves, 
the  Ptolemies  religiously  officiated,  if  only  through 
the  medium  of  a  priestly  proxy  ;  for  it  is  disputed 
whether  they  ever  performed  the  offices  in  person 
except  at  the  coronation  and  on  such  occasions 
as  the  dedication  of  a  temple.     In  any  case  we 

•  The  expression  is  M.  Gayet's  ("  La  Civilisation  Pharao- 
nique,"  p.  302). 

51 


CLEOPATRA    OF    EGYPT 

need  not  inquire  how  much  behef  the  Macedonian 
kings  of  Egypt  put  into  their  worship.  If  Henri 
of  Navarre  found  Paris  worth  a  mass  and  other 
royal  personages  have  since  found  it  possible 
to  accept  a  creed  with  a  crown,  we  may  excuse 
the  Ptolemies  for  putting  on  with  the  white  and 
red  diadems  of  Upper  and  Lower  Egypt  an 
attitude  of  devotion  toward  Amon-Ra,  their 
"  divine  ancestor,"  toward  Osiris,  Isis,  and  a 
host  of  other  deities.  With  Cleopatra  the  case 
was  the  same  as  with  her  family  before  her. 
Her  forefathers  had  built  temples  to  the  Egyptian 
gods,  while  remaining,  for  the  most  part,  unprin- 
cipled Greeks  and  not  troubling  their  heads  as  to 
what  lay  behind  the  curious  and  often  grotesque 
symboUsm  of  their  adopted  religion.  Cleopatra's 
life  shows  her  acting  no  differently. 

When  she  came  to  the  throne  about  June,  51 
B.C.,  Cleopatra  was  either  eighteen  or  in  her 
eighteenth  year.  According  to  the  terms  of  her 
father's  will  she  was  to  reign  jointly  with  her 
brother  Ptolemy  Dionysos,  who  was  at  most 
eleven  years  old,  and  was  to  marry  him  in  ac- 
cordance with  custom.  In  making  the  Roman 
people  his  executors  Auletes  had  been  careful 
to  request  them  to  see  that  the  succession  was 
not  changed.  It  has  been  very  plausibly  sug- 
gested* that  the  cause  of  this  request  was  that 
the  unpopularity  of  the' young  Princess  Cleopatra 

*  See  Bouch6-Leclercq,  "  Histoire  des  Lagides,"  p.  172,  n. 
52 


CLEOPATRA    AND    PTOLEMY    XIV 

in  Alexandria,  which  became  marked  later  on, 
had  already  shown  itself  and  that  her  father 
feared  an  attempt  on  the  part  of  the  Alexandrians 
to  substitute  her  sister  Arsinoe  for  her.  This 
would  indeed  explain  the  violent  hatred  which 
Cleopatra  subsequently  manifested  for  Arsinoe. 
But  we  know  of  no  reason  why  Cleopatra  should 
have  been  already  unpopular  in  Alexandria. 

Anyhow  there  was  apparently  no  protest  against 
her  accession,  either  at  Alexandria  or  at  Rome. 
The  precaution  taken  by  Auletes  to  have  copies 
of  his  will' in  both  places  safeguarded  his  daughter. 
A  revolt  at  Alexandria  would  have  been  imprudent 
in  the  absence  of  any  indication  how  the  suzerain 
Power  regarded  the  new  reign  ;  and  Cleopatra's 
advisers  did  not  hasten  to  send  news  to  Rome  of 
her  father's  death  until  she  was  first  established 
on  the  throne  of  Egypt. 

What  happened  at  the  beginning  of  the  joint 
rule  of  Cleopatra  and  Ptolemy  XIV  is  obscure  ; 
for,  although  Latin  and  Greek  writers  soon 
afterwards  begin  to  pay  close  attention  to  Egyp- 
tian affairs,  the  native  sources  of  information 
have  already  failed  almost  entirely.  It  may 
be  gathered  from  the  subsequent  course  of  events 
that  the  queen  asserted  herself  very  early.  It 
was  in  the  blood  of  the  women  of  the  Lagid  family 
to  grasp  at  power,  and  Cleopatra  at  the  age  of 
eleven  had  seen  her  sister  Berenike,  possibly 
eight  years  her  senior,  taking  a  prominent  part 


CLEOPATRA    OF    EGYPT 

in  the  affairs  of  State.  With  her  masterful 
disposition  she  can  have  wanted  no  inducement 
to  follow  Berenike's  example.  Now,  the  native 
Egyptians  were  not  the  people  to  quarrel  with 
the  idea  of  rule  by  a  woman.  Nitocris  and  the 
queen  of  whom  we  have  heard  much  in  recent 
years,  Hatshepsut,  were  only  two  out  of  a  number 
of  powerful  women  who  had  governed  the  country. 
The  Ptolemies  had  done  much  to  countenance 
the  idea  of  equality  of  the  sexes  in  the  matter  of 
inheritance,  and  the  women  of  the  family  ac- 
customed Egypt  to  the  sight  of  their  intervention 
in  public  affairs.  As  for  Alexandria,  in  spite 
of  its  Macedonian-Greek  origin,  the  city  had  felt 
the  power  of  Egypt,  the  often-conquered  land, 
to  absorb  its  conquerors  ;  and  its  inhabitants, 
while  developing  a  character  of  their  own,  had 
grown  in  many  ways  more  Egyptian  than 
Greek. 

The  opposition  to  Cleopatra's  predominance, 
however,  arose  in  Alexandria,  within  the  walls  of 
the  palace  itself.  The  young  Ptolemy  XIV 
remained  under  the  care  of  his  eunuch  nutritins, 
Potheinos,  a  man  of  unscrupulous  ambition. 
With  Potheinos  were  associated  Achillas,  de- 
scribed by  Plutarch  as  an  Egyptian,  who  com- 
manded the  troops  in  Alexandria,  or  at  least 
those  troops  attached  to  the  person  of  the  king  ; 
and  Theodotos,  a  Greek  rhetorician  from  Samos, 
one  of  the  many  miserable  pedagogues  of  the 

54 


CLEOPATRA  AND  PTOLEMY  XIV 

period.  Theodotos  was  Ptolemy's  tutor,  Achillas 
his  military  adviser,  and  Potheinos  his  treasurer 
and  coimsellor  in  general.  These  men  were 
determined  in  taking  advantage  of  the  king's 
minority  to  rule  Egypt  in  his  name.  Between 
them  and  Cleopatra,  equally  bent  on  ruling 
Egypt  herself,  there  could  be  no  friendship,  and 
but  little  provocation  was  wanted  to  bring  about 
open  strife. 

It  was  not  until  the  third  year  of  the  joint 
reign,  however,  that  the  rival  parties  came  to 
blows.  The  little  information  which  we  have 
of  these  years  shows  a  troublous  state  of 
affairs  at  Alexandria.  The  soldiers  originally 
left  by  Gabinius  as  a  bodyguard  to  Ptolemy 
Auletes  were  completely  out  of  the  control  of 
their  nominal  masters.  In  the  first  year  of  Cleo- 
patra and  her  brother  it  occurred  to  Marcus 
Calpumius  Bibulus,  Julius  Caesar's  aristocratic 
colleague  in  the  consulship  of  59,  and  now  pro- 
consular governor  of  Syria,  to  send  to  Alexandria 
an  order  for  these  men  to  rejoin  the  Roman 
ranks  and  take  part  in  the  war  which  he  was 
contemplating  against  the  Parthians.  He  en- 
trusted the  message  to  two  of  his  sons.  The 
"  Gabinians "  had  no  mind  to  give  up  their 
pleasant  position  in  Egypt  and,  enraged  at  the 
attempt  of  Bibulus,  killed  the  two  envoys.  Cleo- 
patra, who  had  good  reasons  for  not  quarrelling 
with  Rome,  seized  the  ringleaders  and  sent  them 

55 


CLEOPATRA    OF    EGYPT 

in  chains  to  Bibulus.  The  proconsul,  quite  in 
the  style  of  the  old  Roman  noble,  returned  the 
prisoners  to  her,  saying  that  the  right  of  inflicting 
punishment  belonged  not  to  him,  but  to  the 
Senate.  And  here,  strangely,  the  matter  seems 
to  have  ended. 

The  second  occasion  on  which  we  hear  of  the 
affairs  of  Egypt  during  the  years  51-49  B.C.  is 
also  connected  partly  with  the  Gabinians.  A 
breach  had  begun  to  open  between  JuHus  Caesar 
and  Pompey  immediately  after  the  death  of 
Julia,  daughter  of  the  former  and  wife  of  the 
latter  (though  her  husband  was  older  than  her 
father),  and  early  in  49  it  was  past  healing. 
In  preparation  for  the  inevitable  war  Pompey 
sent  his  elder  son  Cnaeus,  destined  to  die  fighting 
against  Caesar  in  Spain,  to  procure  corn,  men, 
and  ships  from  Egypt.  Pompey  being  regarded 
as  the  patron  of  the  Lagid  dynasty,  his  son  was 
well  received  in  Alexandria.  From  an  allusion 
in  Plutarch's  Life  of  Antony*  it  is  gathered 
that  the  young  queen  had  an  intrigue  with 
Cnaeus  Pompeius  during  his  visit  to  Egypt. 
Had  this  piece  of  scandal  been  found  in  an}'^ 
of  the  other  classical  writers  about  Cleopatra, 
it  might  have  been  regarded  as  part  of  the 
usual  abuse  of  the    enemy  of  Rome  ;    and,    as 

*  "  Antony,"  25.  Plutarch  speaks  of  Cleopatra,  when 
she  met  Antony  in  Cilicia  in  41  B.C.,  being  "  encouraged  by 
the  success  of  her  charms  against  Caesar  and  Cnaeus,  the  son 
of  Pompeius." 

56 


CLEOPATRA  AND  PTOLEMY  XIV 

it  is,  we  have  no  knowledge  of  whence  Plutarch 
derived  his  information. 

Whether  or  not  Cnaeus  Pompeius  made  an 
appeal  to  the  queen  in  any  other  capacity  than 
those  of  son  of  the  benefactor  of  her  house  and 
representative  of  the  Roman  Government,  he 
succeeded  in  his  mission.  He  took  with  him 
when  he  left  Alexandria  fifty  warships,  some  with 
three,  some  with  five  banks  of  oars,  and  a  force 
of  five  hundred  men  drawn  from  the  Gabinians. 
With  these  he  set  out  to  join  Bibulus,  who  was 
now  admiral  in  command  of  Pompey's  fleet 
in  the  Adriatic. 

The  next  we  hear  of  Cleopatra  is  in  the  early 
autumn  of  the  following  year,  when  she  was  an 
exile  from  Egypt.  The  course  of  events  in  the 
meanwhile  is  unknown,  and  is  likely  to  remain  so 
unless  some  discovery  in  Egypt  is  destined  one 
day  to  throw  light  on  a  period  about  which  no 
Egyptian  record  hitherto  found  has  anything  to 
say.  As  the  young  Ptolemy  attained  his  majority, 
at  the  age  of  fourteen,  in  48,  Dr.  Mahaffy  suggests* 
that  his  proclamation  at  Memphis  was  followed 
by  his  assumption  of  sole  control  of  the  kingdom 
and  by  the  expulsion  of  Cleopatra.  It  seems 
possible  that  Cleopatra's  unpopularity  in  Alex- 
andria, whether  existing  before  her  accession 
or  due  to  her  ambition  to  rule  without  her 
brother,    had    been    increased    by    her    yielding 

*  "  History  of  Egypt,"  p.  238. 

57 


CLEOPATRA    OF    EGYPT 

to  the  Pompeian  requisitions  from  Egypt.  There 
may  have  been  a  fight  between  her  adherents  and 
her  brother's,  but  we  cannot  be  sure  concerning 
anything  except  the  fact  that  in  the  autumn 
of  48,  when  she  was  about  twenty-one  years 
of  age,  Cleopatra  was  a  fugitive  across  the  eastern 
frontier  of  Egypt,  pursued  by  the  king's  armj-. 
Having,  hke  all  princesses  of  the  wealthy  house 
of  Lagos,  ample  funds  at  her  disposal,  she  was 
able  to  command  the  services  of  mercenaries. 
But  there  seems  to  have  been  no  probability 
of  her  restoration  to  the  throne  but  for  the 
intervention  at  this  point  of  the  Romans. 

The  representatives  of  Rome  made  a  tragic 
entrance  upon  the  scene.  On  September  28th 
two  Egyptian  armies  lay  opposite  one  another 
at  the  foot  of  Mount  Casius,  a  height  rising  near 
the  coast-line  on  the  high-road  from  Egypt  to 
Syria,  and  not  far  from  Pelusium.  Cleopatra's 
forces  were  stationed  to  the  eastward,  Ptolemy's 
to  the  west  and  close  to  the  sea,  barring  the 
way  to  Pelusium.  In  the  camp  of  the  king  an 
eager  debate  was  in  progress.  Messengers  had 
just  arrived  announcing  that  Pompey  the  Great, 
flying  after  his  defeat  at  Pharsalia,  was  on  his 
way  to  seek  the  hospitality  of  the  king,  whose 
father  he  had  befriended,  housed,  and  helped 
to  restore,  and  of  whose  family  he  had  been 
the  patron.  While  reminding  the  king  of 
Pompey's  claims  upon  him,  the  messengers  also 

58 


CLEOPATRA    AND    PTOLEMY    XIV 

recalled  to  some  of  the  Gabinian  troops  in  his 
army  that  they  had  once  fought  under  Pompey. 
A  royal  council  was  held,  at  which  were  present 
Potheinos  the  eunuch,  Theodotos  the  rhetorician, 
and  Achillas  the  Egyptian.  "  Such  was  the 
court  whose  decision  Pompeius  awaited,  while 
he  thought  it  beneath  him  to  owe  his  life  to 
Caesar,"  remarks  Plutarch,  whose  admirable 
narrative  of  Pompey's  end  is  one  of  the  most 
dramatic  passages  in  the  work  of  the  most 
dramatic  prose-writer  of  ancient  times.  There 
was  a  diversity  of  opinion  in  the  council,  but 
finally  Theodotos  rose  and  carried  the  day  by  a 
speech  in  which  he  declared  that  it  was  unsafe 
either  to  receive  Pompey  or  to  drive  him  away. 
In  the  first  case  they  would  have  Caesar  as  an 
enemy  and  Pompey  as  a  master,  he  argued  ; 
in  the  second,  Pompey  as  an  enemy  and  Caesar 
also,  if  they  gave  him  the  trouble  of  pursuing 
Pompey.  The  best  course  would  be  to  send 
for  Pompey  and  then  to  slay  him.  Thus  they 
would  please  Caesar  and  have  nothing  to  fear 
from  Pompey.  "  Dead  men  do  not  bite,"  he 
concluded  with  a  smile. 

Pompey  had  meanwhile  arrived  off  the  coast. 
After  his  escape  from  Greece  he  had  picked  up 
in  Lesbos  Cornelia,  the  last  of  his  five  wives, 
and  his  younger  son  Sextus,  and  with  them 
proceeded  to  Asia  Minor.  A  council  of  his 
supporters  was  held,  at  which  he  expressed  his 

59 


CLEOPATRA    OF   EGYPT 

desire  of  taking  refuge  with  one  of  the  foreign 
kings  in  order  to  avoid  falling  into  the  hands  of 
Caesar.  The  names  of  Orodes  of  Parthia  and 
Juba  the  Numidian  were  suggested.  But  his 
Greek  friend,  Theophanes  of  Lesbos,  "  pronounced 
it  madness  to  pass  over  Egypt,  which  was  only 
three  days'  sail  away,  and  Ptolemaeus,  who  was 
still  a  boy  and  was  indebted  to  Pompeius  for 
the  friendship  and  favour  which  his  father  had 
received  from  him,  and  to  put  himself  into  the 
hands  of  the  treacherous  Parthians."  Pompey 
took  this  advice,  and  decided  to  entrust  himself 
to  those  who  were  to  treat  him  worse  than  even 
"  the  treacherous  Parthians  "  would  have  done. 
He  reached  the  Egyptian  coast  with  a  few 
ships  and  about  two  thousand  men,  having 
learnt,  in  Cyprus  perhaps,  what  was  the  state 
of  affairs  in  Egypt  and  where  the  king  was. 
He  waited  on  board  his  own  ship  with  his  wife, 
child,  and  friends,  until  his  messengers  should 
return.  They  came  back  with  an  invitation 
from  Ptolemy  to  come  to  his  camp,  and  soon 
after  them  a  small  boat,  a  mere  fishing-smack, 
was  seen  setting  off  from  the  shore.  In  it  were 
Achillas,  two  Roman  centurions  Septimius  and 
Salvius,  of  whom  the  former  had  once  served 
under  Pompey,  and  three  or  four  slaves.  When 
the  boat  came  alongside  Pornpey's  ship,  Septimius 
saluted  him  as  "  Imperator,"  and  Achillas, 
speaking  in  Greek,  invited  him  to  enter  the  boat, 

60 


CLEOPATRA    AND    PTOLEMY    XIV 

explaining  that  the  water  was  too  shallow  to 
allow  a  trireme  to  approach  the  shore.  This 
was  to  disarm  the  Pompeian  party's  suspicions, 
which  had  indeed  been  aroused  at  the  smallness 
of  the  boat.  It  seemed  too  late  now,  however, 
to  draw  back,  as  Egyptian  warships  could  be 
seen  embarking  their  crews.  The  old  Roman 
general  therefore  embraced  his  weeping  and 
terrified  wife,  ordered  two  of  his  own  centurions, 
his  freedman  Philippus,  and  a  slave  to  get  into 
the  boat,  and  then,  as  he  stepped  in  himself, 
turned  to  Cornelia  and  Sextus  and  repeated  the 
words  of  Sophocles : 

Whoever  to  a  tyrant  goes 

Becomes  his  slave,  though  going  free. 

These  were  the  last  words  which  his  friends  on 
the  ship  heard.  In  the  boat  no  one  spoke  to 
him.  Looking  at  Septimius  he  said  :  "  Am  I 
mistaken,  or  have  we  been  together  in  the  wars  ?  " 
Septimius  nodded,  but  made  no  reply,  so  Pompey 
took  up  a  written  speech  in  Greek,  which  he 
intended  for  PtMemy's  hearing,  and  began  to 
read  through  it.  As  the  boat  neared  the  shore, 
some  of  the  king's  people  were  seen  collecting 
as  if  to  meet  it  at  the  landing-stage.  Pompey 
took  his  freedman 's  hand  to  help  himself  to 
rise,  when  Septimius,  who  was  behind  him, 
ran  him  through,  while  Salvius  and  Achillas 
also  drew  their  swords.     Pulling  his  toga  over 

6i 


CLEOPATRA    OF   EGYPT 

his  head  with  both  hands,  Pompey  uttered  a 
groan  and  fell  dead. 

Thus  was  murdered,  on  the  day  before  his 
fifty-eighth  birthday,  Cnaeus  Pompeius  Magnus, 
bringing  to  a  close  a  life  of  consummate  good 
luck  with  a  death  which  Plutarch  has  made 
world-famous,  and  appealing  to  our  hearts  more 
by  his  last  failure  than  by  the  innumerable 
successes  which  preceded  it.  Professor  Momm- 
sen,  with  his  usual  sweeping  severity,  saw  in 
Pompey  "  an  example  of  spurious  greatness 
to  which  history  knows  no  parallel,"  though 
allowing  him,  what  cannot  be  denied,  the  virtues 
of  a  good  soldier,  who  was  at  the  same  time 
"  neither  a  bad  nor  an  incapable  man."*  Pompey 
indeed,  but  for  his  stiff  egotism,  his  irritating 
vacillation,  and  his  lack  of  personal  charm, 
would  be  a  more  sympathetic  character  than 
most  of  his  distinguished  contemporaries  ;  for, 
unlike  the  majority  of  them,  he  was  neither 
morally  vile  nor  financially  corrupt. 

It  is  perhaps  fortunate  for  Cleopatra's  fame  that 
at  the  time  of  Pompey's  arrival  m  Egypt  she  was 
in  a  camp  hostile  to  that  of  the  Egyptian  Govern- 
ment, although  it  is  possible  that  she  would  have 
been  mercifully  inclined  toward  the  father  of 
Cnaeus  and  the  friend  of  her  own  father.     Still, 

*  "  History  of  Rome,"  V.  p.  273.  The  whole  passage  is 
an  excellent  specimen  of  the  German  professor's  very  in- 
cisive style, 

62 


CLEOPATRA  AND  PTOLEMY  XIV 

it  would  have  been  a  difficult  problem  for  her  to 
know  how  to  deal  with  the  chief  of  the  losing 
party  in  the  civil  struggle  of  Rome.  Ptolemy 
XIV.  was  doubtless  personally  innocent  of  the 
crime  which  was  committed  in  his  name,  being 
but  fourteen  years  old  and  under  the  control  of 
his  wretched  advisers.  But  for  the  dynastic 
quarrel  in  Egypt  the  Court  would  have  been  at 
Alexandria  when  Pompey  arrived,  and  matters 
might  have  taken  a  different  turn.  It  is  unlikely 
however,  that  the  Alexandrians,  who  attacked 
the  victorious  Caesar  when  he  came  with  a 
considerably  superior  force,  would  have  been 
afraid  to  kill  the  fugitive  Pompey,  attended  by 
a  handful  of  other  fugitives. 


63 


CHAPTER  IV 

CLEOPATRA  AND   CAESAR 

It  has  been  amusingly  demonstrated  on  the 
modern  stage  what  the  first  meeting  between 
Julius  Caesar  and  Cleopatra  could  not  have  been 
like.  The  actual  meeting,  as  told  by  the  ancient 
historians,  is  even  more  dramatic  than  any 
efforts  of  recent  imagination  have  been  able  to 
make  it.  Unfortunately,  the  modesty  of  the 
great  Roman  has  prevented  us  from  having  a 
first-hand  account  of  the  scene,  and  the  rise  of 
the  Empire  did  not  encourage  memoir-writers 
to  be  indiscreet,  until  after  a  considerable  lapse 
of  years.  Hence  we  have  much  surer  knowledge 
of  the  events  preceding  and  accompanying  the 
encounter  than  of  the  encounter  itself  and  the 
first  relations  between  the  Roman  Dictator  and 
the  Queen  of  Egypt. 

Caesar  was  not  many  days  later  than  Pompey 
in  reaching  Egypt.  He  probably  guessed  that 
Pompey  would  go  thither  on  account  of  his 
position  of  patron  of  the  ruling  dynasty  ;  and, 
as  he  made  straight  for  Alexandria,  it  seems 
that  he  could  not  have  heard  of  the  upset  of 
affairs  in  the  kingdom.     The  Pompeian  party, 

64 


CLEOPATRA   AND    CAESAR 

even  after  the  defeat  at  Pharsalia,  had  been  in 
a  better  position  to  receive  news  from  Egypt 
than  their  enemies,  who  had  yet  to  secure  com- 
mand of  the  Mediterranean.  Caesar  sailed  into 
the  Great  Harbour,  also  called  the  New  Port, 
of  Alexandria  with  a  little  fleet  of  ten  warships, 
which  had  been  furnished  by  the  Rhodians, 
and  twenty-five  Asiatic  vessels.  On  board  he 
had  three  thousand  two  hundred  infantry  (the 
remains  of  two  legions),  and  eight  hundred 
horsemen.  In  the  third  book  of  his  work  on  the 
Civil  War  he  gives  the  following  account  of 
his  landing,  writing,  as  usual,  in  the  third 
person : 

"  At  Alexandria  he  first  learnt  of  the  death  of 
Pompeius  ;  and  there,  as  he  stepped  off  his  ship, 
he  first  heard  the  shouts  of  the  soldiers  whom  the 
king  had  left  in  the  city  as  a  garrison,  and  saw  a 
rush  being  made  toward  him  because  of  the  fasces 
which  were  carried  before  him.  The  whole  mob 
declared  that  this  was  an  insult  to  the  king's 
majesty.  When  this  trouble  was  over,  crowds 
gathered  together  day  after  day,  and  many 
outbreaks  took  place,  and  many  soldiers  were 
killed  in  every  quarter  of  the  town." 

These  brief  words  are  sufficient  to  indicate 
that  Caesar  put  himself  in  a  position  of  great 
peril  when  he  disembarked  in  Alexandria  with 
so  small  a  force,  even  though  the  main  Egyptian 
army  was  away  on  the  frontier.     There  was  the 

65  3 


CLEOPATRA    OF   EGYPT 

mob  of  Alexandria,  a  city  of  over  three  hundred 
thousand  inhabitants  besides  slaves,  to  be 
reckoned  with,  as  well  as  the  garrison  ;  and, 
as  Alexandria  was  a  favourite  resort  for  Italian 
runaways,  it  is  likely  that  the  sight  of  the  little 
bundles  of  twigs  carried  before  the  Roman 
consul  by  his  lictors  excited  other  feelings  as  well 
as  indignation  at  the  "  insult  to  the  king's 
majesty."  From  the  fact  that  "  many  soldiers 
were  killed  in  every  quarter  of  the  town  "  it 
would  seem  that  Caesar  did  not  feel  it  necessary 
at  first  to  keep  his  men  in  barracks  as  if  they 
were  in  a  hostile  city.  He  tells  us,  however, 
that  he  sent  to  Asia  Minor  for  some  legions  which 
he  had  made  up  of  the  remnants  of  the  Pompeian 
army  after  Pharsalia  to  come  to  him.  As  the 
reason  for  his  continued  stay  in  Alexandria  he 
mentions  the  Etesii,  the  annual  trade  winds 
which  blow  from  the  north  for  forty  days  after 
the  rising  of  the  dog-star,  making  it  difficult 
for  ships  such  as  were  built  then  to  leave  Alex- 
andria. He  also  wished,  since  he  had  come  to 
Egypt,  to  regulate  the  affairs  of  the  country  before 
he  left.  "  Considering,"  he  writes,  "  that  the 
royal  quarrel  was  a  matter  for  the  Roman  people 
and  for  himself,  especially  falling  within  his 
province  because,  in  his  previous  consulship, 
a  formal  treaty  of  alliance  had  been  made  with 
Ptolemaeus  the  father,  he  expressed  his  desire 
that  King  Ptolemaeus  and  his  sister  Cleopatra 

66 


CLEOPATRA   AND    CAESAR 

should  dismiss  the  armies  under  their  command, 
and  decide  their  quarrel  before  him  judicially 
rather  than  by  force  of  arms." 

Caesar  makes  no  mention  of  Pompey's  head 
being  sent  to  him.  It  seems  that,  when  the  news 
of  his  landing  in  Alexandria  reached  the  king's 
camp,  the  amiable  Theodotos  set  out  with  his 
trophy,  the  dead  general's  body  having  been  left 
on  the  shore  to  be  cremated  by  his  faithful 
freedman.  Plutarch  says  that  Caesar  turned 
away  from  Theodotos  as  from  a  murderer,  and 
that  he  wept  when  he  was  given  Pompey's  seal 
— a  lion  holding  a  sword  ;  Appian,  that  "  Caesar 
could  not  bear  to  look  at  the  head  when  it  was 
brought  to  him,  but  ordered  it  to  be  buried, 
setting  apart  for  it  a  small  plot  of  ground  near 
the  city,  dedicated  to  Nemesis." 

The  young  king  and  Potheinos  appear  to  have 
followed  Theodotos  to  Alexandria,  leaving  behind 
them  Achillas  and  the  troops,  in  seeming  obedience 
to  Caesar's  desire.  Moreover,  whether  there  had 
been  any  fighting  between  Ptolemy's  and  Cleo- 
patra's armies  or  not,  Cleopatra  was  still  on  the 
frontier.  But,  on  the  receipt  of  the  summons 
to  disband  her  forces  and  repair  to  Alexandria 
to  settle  her  differences  with  Ptolemy  judicially, 
she  started  to  obey.  Potheinos,  on  the  other 
hand,  expressing  his  indignation  at  Caesar  ven- 
turing to  call  Ptolemy  before  him,  sent  a  message 
to  Achillas   to   bring   the  whole   army   secretly 

67 


CLEOPATRA    OF    EGYPT 

to  Alexandria.  Caesar  describes  the  force  as 
amounting  to  twenty  thousand  men  in  all,  in- 
cluding the  Gabinians  and  a  collection  of  brigands 
and  pirates  from  Syria,  Cilicia,  and  the  neigh- 
bouring countries,  as  well  as  condemned  criminals 
and  runaways  from  Rome.  In  addition  there 
were  two  thousand  cavalry  ;  and  the  whole  army 
was  experienced  in  warfare,  having  taken  part 
in  the  struggles  for  the  throne.*  The  arrival 
of  these  men  made  desperate  the  position  of 
Caesar,  with  no  more  than  four  thousand  soldiers 
and  the  crews  of  his  ships. 

Cleopatra,  as  we  have  said,  started  to  obey 
Caesar's  summons.  But  her  difficulty  was  how 
to  appear  before  him,  with  Alexandria  in  pos- 
session of  her  brother's  troops  and  the  Romans 
practically  prisoners  in  the  quarter  of  the  city 
which  contained  the  Royal  Palace.  Caesar  makes 
no  further  allusion  to  her  in  the  remaining  chapters 
of  his  "  Civil  War."  Indeed  his  only  mention 
of  her  name  is  in  the  passage  quoted  above. 
The  anonymous  author  of  the  book  on  "  The 
Alexandrian  War,"  who  carries  on  Caesar's 
narrative,  is  equally  reticent.  Later  writers 
fortunately  did  not  consider  themselves  bound 
to  observe  silence  for  fear  of  damaging  the  Dic- 

*  Compluribus  Alexandriae  bellis,  says  Caesar,  "  de  Bello 
Civili "  III.  no.  He  also  mentions  bella  cum  Aegyptiis. 
In  the  absence  of  Egyptian  records  for  the  early  years  of 
Cleopatra's  reign  we  know  of  no  such  native  risings  as  those 
to  which  Caesar  seems  to  refer. 

68 


CLEOPATRA    AND    CAESAR 

tator's  reputation.  "  As  to  the  war,"  remarks 
Plutarch,  "  some  say  that  it  might  have  been 
avoided,  and  that  it  broke  out  in  consequence 
of  Caesar's  passion  for  Cleopatra,  and  was  dis- 
creditable to  him  and  hazardous."  Caesar 
originally  blamed  the  Etesian  winds  for  his  stay  ; 
but  his  almost  total  suppression  of  Cleopatra's 
name  is  a  proof  of  her  share  in  prolonging  his 
sojourn  in  Alexandria, 

Both  Plutarch  and  Dion  Cassius  give  circum- 
stantial accounts  of  the  manner  in  which  Cleopatra 
introduced  herself  to  Caesar  and  conquered  his 
heart.  We  last  heard  of  her  near  Pelusium  at 
the  time  of  Pompey's  murder.  She  probably 
made  the  whole  of  her  way  from  Pelusium  to 
Alexandria  by  sea.  According  to  Plutarch,  she 
took  with  her  only  one  of  her  adherents,  Apollo- 
doros  the  Sicilian,  and,  getting  into  a  small  boat, 
approached  the  Palace  as  it  was  growing  dark. 
As  it  was  impossible  for  her  to  escape  notice  any 
other  way — and  it  cannot  be  supposed  that  she 
would  have  received  any  mercy  at  the  hands 
of  Potheinos  had  she  been  discovered — she 
got  into  a  bed-sack,  a  kind  of  empty  mattress 
in  which  bed-clothes  were  tied  up  in  those  days. 
After  she  had  laid  herself  at  full  length,  Apollo- 
doros  tied  the  sack  together  with  a  cord,  hoisted 
it  upon  his  shoulders,  and  carried  it  through 
the  Palace  into  Caesar's  presence. 

Dion     narrates    the     introduction    somewhat 

69 


CLEOPATRA    OF   EGYPT 

differently.  "  At  first  her  case  against  her 
brother,"  he  says,  "  was  argued  for  her  by  friends, 
until,  learning  the  amorous  character  of  Caesar,* 
she  sent  him  word  that  her  cause  was  being  mis- 
managed by  her  advocates,  and  that  she  desired 
to  plead  it  herself.  She  was  now  in  the  flower 
of  her  age  and  most  exceedingly  beautiful. 
Moreover,  she  had  the  sweetest  of  voices  and 
every  charm  of  conversation,  so  that  she  was 
likely  to  ensnare  even  the  most  obdurate  and 
elderly  man.  She  looked  on  these  gifts  as  her 
claims  upon  Caesar.  She  therefore  begged  for 
an  interview,  and  adorned  herself  in  a  garb 
most  becoming,  yet  likely  to  arouse  his  pity, 
and  so  came  secretly  by  night  to  visit  him." 

The  date  of  this  celebrated  meeting  was  some 
time  in  the  October  of  48  B.C.,  according  to  the 
unreformed  calendar.  The  Dictator  was  about 
fifty-four  years  of  age,  and,  as  we  know  from  his 
busts,  with  his  thin  hair  and  drawn-in  cheeks, 
did  not  look  younger.  He  might  answer,  there- 
fore, in  some  ways  to  Dion's  "  elderly  man." 
But  he  was  certainly  not  "  obdurate."  His 
most  ardent  panegyrist  Mommsen  admits  that 
he  "  appeared  among  all  his  victories  to  value 
most  those  over  beautiful  women."  His  conduct 
toward  women  has  often  been  compared  with 
Napoleon's ;    not  that  he  was  brusque  toward 

*  We  axe  reminded  of  part  of  Curio's  epigram  on  Caesar, 
quoted  by  Suetonius,  that  he  was  omnium  mulierum  vir. 

70 


CLEOPATRA    AND    CAESAR 

them,  but  because  he  seemed  often  to  treat  them 
as  necessary  relaxations  in  the  course  of  the 
most  arduous  public  affairs.  The  Cleopatras 
and  Eunoes  of  Caesar  answered  to  the  Mesdames 
Foures  and  Walewska  of  Napoleon.  In  Alex- 
andria, however,  the  Roman  allowed  a  woman 
to  imperil  his  position  in  a  way  which  was  im- 
paralleled  in  the  Corsican's  conduct — ^unless  it 
be  the  campaign  against  the  Austrians  in  1796, 
when  Napoleon's  infatuation  for  his  own  wife 
neariy  led  to  his  capture  at  Brescia. 

The  daring  spirit  which  Cleopatra  had  shown  in 
her  device  to  get  into  his  presence  was  the  first 
thing  which  captivated  Caesar,  Plutarch  tells 
us.  Then,  "  being  completely  enslaved  by  his 
acquaintance  with  her  and  by  her  attractions, 
he  brought  about  an  accommodation  between 
Cleopatra  and  her  brother  on  the  terms  of  her 
being  associated  with  him  in  the  kingdom." 
Similarly  Dion  says  :  "  When  Caesar  saw  her 
and  heard  the  sound  of  her  voice  he  became  her 
slave  on  the  spot,  so  much  so  that  toward  dawn 
he  sent  for  Ptolemy,  and  tried  to  reconcile  them. 
For  he  had  already  become  the  advocate  of  her 
whose  judge  he  had  intended  to  be."  (Caesar, 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  was  not  going  beyond  the 
terms  of  the  will  of  Auletes  in  attempting  to 
make  Cleopatra  and  Ptolemy  XIV  continue  to 
rule  jointly.)  Dion  continues  :  "  The  boy,  feeling 
this  and  seeing  that  his  sister  had  suddenly  made 

71 


CLEOPATRA    OF   EGYPT 

her  appearance,  was  filled  with  anger,  and, 
rushing  out  to  the  multitude,  cried  out  that  he 
was  betrayed.  Last  of  all  he  tore  the  crown  off 
his  head  and  dashed  it  to  the  ground.  A  great 
uproar  resulting,  the  Caesarians  seized  upon 
Ptolemy,  while  the  Egyptians  were  in  a  state 
of  confusion.  The  latter  would  have  carried 
the  Palace  with  a  simultaneous  attack  from  land 
and  from  sea — for  the  Romans,  thinking  them- 
selves among  friends,  had  no  force  to  resist 
them — ^had  not  Caesar  in  alarm  come  out  to 
them  and,  standing  in  a  safe  place,  promised  to 
do  all  they  might  wish.  Then  he  called  together 
a  meeting,  at  which  he  produced  Ptolemy  and 
Cleopatra  and  read  out  their  father's  will." 

Having  reminded  the  assembly  how  Auletes 
had  disposed  of  his  inheritance,  Caesar  stated 
that  it  was  his  duty  as  Dictator  and  representative 
of  the  Roman  people  to  look  after  the  late  king's 
children,  and  to  see  that  his  wishes  were  carried 
out.  He  therefore  gave  the  kingdom  to  the  two 
claimants  conjointly  ;  and  Dion  would  have  us 
believe  that  he  presented  Cyprus  to  Arsinoe  and 
Ptolemy  the  younger,  being  "  in  such  a  state  of 
alarm  that,  so  far  from  taking  anything  from 
Eg}^t,  he  gave  them  something  also  from  his 
own  possessions."  We  can  find  no  other  allusion 
to  this  gift  of  Cyprus,  which  at  this  epoch  appears 
an  improbable  piece  of  generosity,  nor  is  there 
any  trace  of  a  visit  to  the  island  on  the  part  of 

72 


CLEOPATR.\    AND    CAESAR 

Arsinoe  and  the  younger  Ptolemy.  It  is  possible 
that  the  gift,  if  it  was  made,  was  revoked  when 
Ptolemy  XIV  died  and  his  brother  took  his  place 
on  the  Eg}^tian  throne.  Cyprus  appears  then 
to  have  figured  again  as  part  of  the  Roman 
province  of  Cilicia.  In  42  B.C.,  however,  we 
find  the  island  being  administered  by  an  Egyptian 
viceroy,  so  that  Cleopatra  must  somehow  have 
managed  to  get  it  into  her  possession. 

Caesar  relates  the  events  leading  to  his  seizure  of 
Ptolemy  XIV  very  simply,  omitting  all  reference 
to  Ptolemy's  sister.  On  the  approach  of  the 
royal  army  to  Alexandria,  he  says,  Achillas,  at 
the  instigation  of  Potheinos  and  others,  sent 
letters  and  messengers  demanding  that  what 
he  wanted  should  be  done.  He  himself,  on  learn- 
ing of  the  army's  return,  put  himself  in  a  state 
of  defence,  and  persuaded  Ptolemy  to  send  a 
couple  of  his  friends  to  parley  with  Achillas. 
The  men  chosen  were  Dioskorides  and  Serapion, 
who  had  both  been  on  an  embassy  to  Rome  in 
the  time  of  Auletes.  Achillas  ordered  the  envoys 
to  be  seized  and  killed  ;  and  one  was  actually 
slain,  the  other  left  for  dead.  Caesar  then  assured 
himself  of  the  person  of  the  king,  both  in  the 
hope  of  using  Ptolemy's  name  and  influence 
and  "  in  order  that  the  war  might  appear  to  have 
been  started  independently  at  the  instigation  of 
a  few  desperadoes  rather  than  of  the  king,"  as 
he  frankly  admits, 

73  3* 


CLEOPATRA    OF   EGYPT 

The  situation  in  Alexandria  was  now  this. 
Caesar,  with  his  four  thousand  men,  was  in  occu- 
pation of  the  north-eastern  quarter  of  Alexandria, 
known  as  the  Brucheion,  including  the  Royal 
Palace  and  the  Theatre,  lying  south-west  of  the 
Palace,  which  he  made  his  headquarters.  In 
the  Palace  itself  were  Cleopatra,  Ptolemy  XIV 
and  his  guardian  Potheinos,  Arsinoe,  and  the 
younger  Ptolemy,  All  the  rest  of  the  city  was 
in  the  possession  of  Achillas  and  the  royal  army. 
Caesar's  few  ships  were  in  the  Great  Harbour, 
or  rather  in  the  eastern  comer  of  it  called  the 
Royal  Harbour.  The  Alexandrian  home  fleet, 
reinforced  by  the  fifty  ships  which  had  been  lent 
to  Pompey  and  had  returned  after  Pharsalia, 
were  masters  of  the  Western  or  Old  Port,  Eunos- 
tos,  and  of  part  of  the  Great  Harbour,  including 
its  entrances  from  the  sea  and  from  Eunostos. 
To  a  certain  extent  the  Roman  position  was  like 
that  of  besieged  Europeans  in  the  Legations  at 
Peking,  with  the  sea  taking  the  place  of  the 
Peking-Tientsin  railway.  But  two  important 
differences  were  that  in  Alexandria  the  Palace 
was  in  Roman  hands,  instead  of  being  the  chief 
stronghold  of  the  enemy,  and  that  Ptolemy  and 
his  eunuch  adviser  were  at  the  beginning  in 
Caesar's  power  instead  of  being  at  large  like  the 
Empress  Dowager  and  her  eunuchs. 

There  is  no  indication  as  to  how  long  was  the 
interval  between  Caesar's  settlement  of  the  claims 

74 


CLEOPATRA    AND    CAESAR 

of  Cleopatra  and  her  brother  and  the  actual  out- 
break of  fighting.  The  war  was  precipitated  by 
the  intrigues  of  Potheinos,  which  had  commenced 
as  soon  as  he  reached  Alexandria  with  his  young 
king.  One  of  the  chief  reasons  why  the  Alex- 
andrians had  looked  with  displeasure  on  Caesar's 
arrival  was  that  they  remembered  that  Auletes 
had  borrowed  huge  sums  from  certain  Romans 
in  order  to  bribe  others,  and  that  he  had  not 
repaid  them.  Caesar's  claim,  indeed,  was  for 
£700,000,  though  he  does  not  mention  it  in  his 
"  Civil  War."  He  agreed  to  remit  part  of  the 
debt  to  the  heir  of  Auletes  and  asked  only  for 
ten  million  denarii,  or  £400,000,  saying  that  he 
required  money  for  the  upkeep  of  his  troops. 
Potheinos  made  good  use  of  Caesar's  unfortunate 
position  as  creditor  living  in  the  house  of  his 
debtor.  While  providing,  as  Ptolemy's  treasurer, 
bad  com  for  the  Roman  soldiers,  and  telling 
them  that  they  ought  to  be  thankful  for  what 
they  got  when  they  were  eating  what  belonged 
to  others,  he  caused  to  be  used  at  the  royal 
table  wooden  and  earthenware  vessels,  alleging 
that  Caesar  had  taken  those  of  gold  and  silver. 
To  stir  up  Egyptian  sentiment  further,  he  stripped 
the  temples  of  their  treasures.  In  the  meantime 
he  was  giving  Caesar  the  excellent  advice  that 
he  should  go  where  his  business  called  him — 
either  to  Pontus,  to  meet  the  Parthians,  or 
back    to   Rome — and   was    keeping  in  constant 

75 


CLEOPATRA   OF   EGYPT 

communication  with  Achillas  with  a  view  to  over- 
whelming the  small  Roman  force  altogether. 

The  Egyptian  commander,  on  his  side,  did  not 
wait  long  after  his  entry  into  Alexandria  before 
attempting  to  gain  a  footing  in  the  Brucheion. 
Caesar  spread  his  troops  in  defensive  positions 
through  the  streets  of  the  royal  quarter,  and  beat 
off  the  attack.  Simultaneously  a  still  fiercer 
fight  took  place  on  the  harbour  side.  While  the 
Egyptians  were  trying  to  man  their  warships, 
the  Romans  succeeded  in  penetrating  into  the 
docks  and  burning  the  whole  fleet  which  lay  there, 
the  fifty  ships  which  had  been  lent  to  Pompey, 
twenty-two  guardships,  and  a  number  of  others, 
making  up  a  grand  total  of  one  hundred  and  ten 
vessels,  according  to  the  author  of  the  book  on 
"  The  Alexandrian  War."  In  the  great  conflag- 
ration which  arose  (although  the  same  author 
declares  Alexandria  to  have  been  almost  proof 
against  fire  owing  to  the  absence  of  wood  from 
its  buildings)  the  celebrated  Library  is  said  by 
later  authors  to  have  been  destroyed — with  books 
to  the  number  of  four  hundred  thousand,  accord- 
ing to  Livy's  figures,  quoted  by  Seneca.  Modern 
writers  are  very  naturally  sceptical  about  the 
burning  of  the  Library,  seeing  that  it  is  unmen- 
tioned  by  Caesar  and  the  writer  who  carried  on 
Caesar's  description  of  the  war,  by  Cicero,  by 
the  violent  anti-Caesarian  Lucan,  by  Strabo,  or 
by  any  one  else,  either  in  the  generation  con- 

76 


CLEOPATRA   AND   CAESAR 

temporary  with  the  supposed  catastrophe  or 
in  the  next,  except  Livy  in  a  book  which  has 
been  lost.  If  the  Library  was  actually  destroyed 
there  was  certainly  a  most  remarkable  conspiracy 
of  silence  about  it,  in  which  men  joined  who  had 
no  reason  for  wishing  to  spare  the  reputation  of 
Julius  Caesar. 

The  burning  of  the  Egyptian  ships  in  the  docks 
of  the  Great  Harbour  was  a  great  stroke  of  luck 
for  Caesar,  but  it  did  not  give  him  command  of 
the  sea,  for  there  was  a  fleet  in  the  Old  Port,  and 
moreover  the  island  of  Pharos  commanded  the 
entrance  to  the  Great  Harbour.  There  was  a 
regular  town  on  the  island,  and  a  fort,  from  which 
communication  with  Alexandria  was  kept  up  by 
means  of  the  Heptastadion,  a  mole  of  seven 
stades  (1,416  yards)  in  length,  pierced  with  two 
openings  over  which  there  were  bridges.*  Taking 
advantage  of  the  Alexandrians  being  occupied 
with  the  street-fighting,  Caesar  threw  a  force 
across  to  the  island  and  seized  it,  thus  opening  the 
way  to  the  sea  and  enabling  him  to  send  out  for 
supplies  and  reinforcements.  Holding  his  o\mi, 
too,  against  Achillas,  he  succeeded  in  running  up 
entrenchments  sufficient  to  keep  the  Egyptians 
from  penetrating  into  the  streets  of  the  royal 
quarter  of  the  city. 

Still,  although  the  Palace  was  secure  in  his 

•  Owing  to  the  silting  up  of  the  harbour  along  the  ancient 
Heptastadion  the  island  of  Pharos  is  now  a  peninsula. 


CLEOPATRA    OF    EGYPT 

hands,  there  was  treachery  within  to  cope  with, 
as  well  as  attacks  from  without.  But  perhaps 
the  conduct  of  the  Egyptian  royalists  cannot  be 
properly  called  treachery,  seeing  that,  except  to 
Cleopatra,  the  presence  of  Caesar  and  his  troops 
was  alike  unwelcome  and  oppressive.  The  first 
hostile  move  was  made  by  the  Princess  Arsinoe, 
of  whom  we  have  hitherto  heard  nothing  but  her 
name,  although  it  is  plain  from  her  conduct  now 
that  she  shared  the  usual  energy  of  the  women  of 
her  family.  In  company  with  her  eunuch 
nutritius  Ganymedes,  whose  ambition  and  in- 
fluence over  his  ward  were  no  less  than  the  ambi- 
tion of  Potheinos  and  his  influence  over  Ptolemy 
XIV,  she  escaped  from  the  Palace  and  made  her 
way  to  Achillas,  thus  giving  the  Egyptian  cause  a 
visible  rallying-point  in  the  absence  of  the  king. 

Arsinoe's  escape  still  left  three  of  the  royal 
family  in  Caesar's  hands,  and  with  them  Potheinos. 
The  eunuch  employed  his  forced  stay  in  the 
Palace  in  giving  information  to  his  friends  in  the 
besieging  army.  Caesar,  however,  only  wanted 
a  plausible  excuse  for  getting  rid  of  him,  and,  as 
he  relates  himself,  finding  that  Potheinos  was 
writing  to  Achillas  urging  him  to  maintain  the 
struggle  boldly,  put  him  to  death.  The  poet 
Lucan  expresses  his  regret  that  Potheinos  died 
the  same  death  as  Pompey,*  being  decapitated. 

A  second  sacrifice  to  the  spirit  of  the  murdered 

*  Magni  morte  petit,  Lucan,  "  Pharsalia,"  X.  519. 
78 


CLEOPATRA   AND    CAESAR 

Roman  soon  followed.  The  arrival  of  Arsinoe 
and  Ganymedes  brought  dissension  into  the 
Egyptian  camp.  Ganymedes  was  eager  to  raise 
his  princess  to  the  throne,  and  began  to  spread 
bribes  on  her  behalf  among  the  royal  troops.  A 
quarrel  broke  out  with  Achillas,  as  might  have 
been  expected ;  but  Ganymedes  was  strong 
enough  to  procure  the  assassination  of  his  rival. 
Thus  two  of  Pompey's  betrayers  had  paid  the 
penalty  for  their  treachery.  The  third,  Theo- 
dotos,  vanishes  from  sight  until  he  turns  up  again 
in  Asia  Minor  after  Caesar's  murder,  when  he  was 
arrested  by  Marcus  Brutus  and  crucified — a  death 
which  ought  to  have  satisfied  Lucan's  sense  of 
propriety. 

The  two  most  vigorous  enemies  of  the  Romans 
hitherto  were  now  out  of  the  way.  Ganymedes, 
however,  showed  himself  an  even  more  determined 
foe.  Already  orders  had  been  sent  throughout 
the  country  to  bring  reinforcements  and  siege- 
instruments  to  Alexandria.  The  troops  in  the 
town  had  been  supplemented  by  levies  of  armed 
slaves  raised  by  the  richer  townsmen.  Barricades 
of  stone  forty  feet  in  height  had  been  erected  in 
all  the  streets  within  reach  of  the  Romans,  and 
ten-storied  towers  had  been  built  in  the  lower 
parts  of  the  town  near  the  sea.  Ganymedes,  on 
his  advent  to  power,  set  himself  to  work  to  de- 
prive the  besieged  of  their  water-supply,  by 
cutting  off  the  fresh  water  from  the  town  and 

79 


CLEOPATRA    OF   EGYPT 

allowing  the  sea  to  run  into  the  conduits  supply- 
ing the  Brucheion. 

Caesar  in  the  meantime  was  directing  the 
defence  strenuously  from  his  headquarters  in  the 
Theatre.  His  little  force  was  protected  against 
direct  assault  by  entrenchments  and  barricades. 
The  native  inhabitants  of  the  streets  in  his  pos- 
session were  not  turned  out  of  their  houses,  as 
they  professed  friendship  for  the  Romans.  But 
the  author  of  "  The  Alexandrian  War  "  remarks  : 
"  I  should  be  wasting  many  words  in  vain  if  I 
were  to  defend  the  Alexandrians  from  the  charges 
of  deceit  and  levity  of  mind.  .  .  .  There  can  be 
no  doubt  that  this  race  is  most  prone  to 
treachery."  It  was  not  so  much  a  rising  of  the 
inhabitants,  however,  that  Caesar  feared,  as  a 
failure  of  food-supplies  and  water,  before  help 
came  to  him  from  without.  He  attempted  to 
work  his  way  south  through  the  Canopic  quarter 
of  the  town  to  Lake  Mareotis,  but  this  involved 
storming  the  streets  held  by  the  greatly  superior 
numbers  of  the  Egyptians.  And  now  the  pol- 
luting of  the  conduits  with  sea-water  produced  a 
veritable  panic  among  his  soldiers,  which  he  was 
only  able  to  allay  by  setting  them  to  sink  wells. 
Fortunately  this  resulted  in  the  discovery  of  an 
underground  supply  of  drinkable  water.  Further 
encouragement  was  received  in  the  shape  of  news 
that  the  XXXVHth  Legion,  made  up  of  former 
Pompeians,  had  succeeded  in  crossing  from  Asia 

80 


CLEOPATRA   AND   CAESAR 

Minor  with  food-supplies,  arms,  and  siege- 
instruments,  and  was  off  the  African  coast,  only 
unable  to  reach  Alexandria  owing  to  an  easterly 
wind  blowing.  Caesar,  although  he  was  not  yet 
master  of  the  sea,  boldly  sailed  out  from  the 
Great  Harbour  with  his  ships  manned  only  by 
their  crews,  leaving  the  troops  to  guard  their 
entrenchments,  and  effected  a.  junction  with  his 
reinforcements.  Towing  the  laden  vessels  behind 
him,  he  returned  to  Alexandria.  The  Egyptian 
fleet  tried  to  bar  his  passage,  and  succeeded  in 
cutting  off  one  of  his  best  Rhodian  warships. 
Forced  to  go  to  its  aid,  Caesar  gave  battle,  which 
he  had  previously  avoided  owing  to  his  lack  of 
troops  on  board.  Such  was  the  bravery  and 
skill  of  the  Rhodian  seamen  that  he  carried  the 
day,  capturing  one  large  Egyptian  ship,  sinking 
another,  and  inflicting  on  the  enemy  a  heavy  loss 
in  men. 

The  siege  of  Alexandria,  described  in  full  detail 
by  the  author  of  "  The  Alexandrian  War,"  must 
not  delay  us  too  long  here.  The  principal 
incident  was  the  struggle  for  the  island  of  Pharos, 
with  Caesar's  memorable  escape  from  death. 
The  Egyptians  seem  to  have  regained  possession 
of  the  island,  and  it  became  necessary  for  Caesar 
to  recapture  it.  He  sailed  round  to  the  entrance 
of  the  Old  Port,  forced  his  way  in  and  gave  battle 
again  to  the  Egyptian  fleet,  which  now  numbered 
only  twenty-seven  large  warships  against  his  total 


CLEOPATRA    OF   EGYPT 

of  thirty-four.  Defeating  them  with  heavy  loss,  he 
then  landed  a  military  force  on  Pharos  and  took 
the  town  by  storm.  Proceeding  to  capture  the 
mole  connecting  the  island  with  the  main  city,  he 
began  to  fortify  the  end  facing  the  Rhakotis 
quarter.  But  the  remains  of  the  Egyptian  fleet 
in  the  Old  Port  came  to  the  assistance  of  the  party 
attacking  the  lower  bridge.  The  Alexandrians 
gaining  a  footing  on  the  mole,  the  numerically 
inferior  Romans  were  massacred  or  driven  into 
the  water.  The  author  of  "The  Alexandrian 
War  "  merely  says  that  Caesar  shared  his  men's 
danger  and,  seeing  that  all  was  lost,  escaped  to 
the  boat  which  was  waiting  for  him.  But  such  a 
number  of  his  men  followed  him  that  the  boat 
became  unmanageable  and  began  to  sink. 
Throwing  himself  into  the  water  he  swam  off  to 
the  warships  farther  away  and  sent  back  boats  to 
pick  up  all  they  could.  Later  writers  make  him 
swim  with  his  purple  mantle  held  between  his 
teeth  and  a  bundle  of  important  papers  in  one 
liand.  Others  make  the  mantle  fall  into  the 
hands  of  the  victors,  who  burnt  it  triumphantly 
on  the  scene  of  their  success. 

The  contemporary  historian  of  the  war  pretends 
that  the  Romans  were  not  discouraged  by  this 
defeat,  which  cost  them  four  hundred  legionaries, 
a  still  larger  number  of  seamen  who  had  joined  in 
the  defence  of  the  mole,  and  the  possession  of  the 
mole  itself,  with  its  two  passages  from  the  Old  into 

82 


CLEOPATRA   AND    CAESAR 

the  New  Port.  He  shows,  however,  that  when 
the  Alexandrians  sent  to  Caesar  asking  him  to 
set  King  Ptolemy  at  liberty  the  Dictator  acceded 
to  their  request.  The  Alexandrians  professed  to 
be  tired  of  Arsinoe  and  of  the  harsh  rule  of  Gany- 
medes,  and  to  be  ready  to  be  reconciled  to  Caesar 
if  their  king  should  command  them.  Caesar, 
whatever  his  motives,*  gave  Ptolemy  his  freedom, 
with  a  short  lecture  on  his  duty  to  his  country  and 
his  good  faith  toward  Rome  and  himself.  The 
king,  "  true  to  the  traditions  of  his  race,"  began 
to  weep  and  to  beg  not  to  be  sent  away,  since  his 
kingdom  was  no  dearer  to  him  than  the  sight  of 
Caesar.  The  Dictator  was  touched  and  dried  his 
tears,  sending  him  off  with  the  assurance  that,  if 
such  were  his  sentiments,  he  would  soon  be  with 
him  again.  Ptolemy,  immediately  he  was  at 
liberty,  began  to  press  the  war  against  Caesar  so 
vigorously  that  the  tears  which  he  had  shed 
seemed  to  have  been  tears  of  joy. 

Such  is  the  criticism  upon  Ptolemy's  conduct  of 
the  Roman  writer,  prompt,  like  all  his  fellow- 
countrymen,  to  see  in  every  foreigner  an  example 
of  perfidy  and  ingratitude.  Unprejudiced  people 
might  fail  to  see  that  Ptolemy  owed  much  to  the 

*  The  same  writer  makes  Caesar  not  deceived  by  the  Alex- 
andrians, but  willing  to  believe  that  King  Ptolemy  would 
remzun  faithful,  and  also  influenced  by  the  fact  that,  if 
Ptolemy  turned  against  him,  it  would  be  more  glorious  for 
himself  to  fight  against  the  king  than  against  "  a  crowd 
of  sweepings  of  the  world  and  runaways "  ("  de  Bello 
Alexandrino, "  24). 

83 


CLEOPATRA    OF   EGYPT 

general  who  had  kept  him  a  virtual  prisoner  within 
his  palace,  while  fighting  desperately  against  his 
adherents,  by  land  and  by  sea ;  and  had,  more- 
over, made  a  mistress  of  his  wife  the  Queen. 
Cleopatra  remained  with  the  Romans  now  when 
Ptolemy  was  set  free.  Caesar  was  not  minded  to 
part  with  so  charming  a  companion,  nor  would  it 
have  been  safe  for  Cleopatra  to  put  herself  into 
the  power  of  the  king's  party  and  the  friends  of 
her  sister  Arsinoe.  The  latter  princess  seems  to 
have  retired  from  her  position  of  prominence  upon 
her  brother's  release,  while  her  eunuch  Gany- 
medes,  in  spite  of  the  success  with  which  he  had 
conducted  the  siege,  vanishes  from  sight  and  is 
not  heard  of  again  until  he  appears  as  a  prisoner 
in  Caesar's  triumphal  procession  in  Rome. 
Caesar  possibly  anticipated  dissensions  among 
the  Egyptians  when  they  got  back  their  king. 
If  so,  his  "  kindness  "  to  Ptolemy*  was  a  good 
stroke  of  policy.  The  siege  when  no  more  under 
the  management  of  Ganymedes  pressed  less 
hardly  on  the  Romans  ;  and  it  was  not  long  before 
it  came  to  an  end  owing  to  a  diversion  in  Caesar's 
favour  from  the  eastern  frontier  of  Egypt. 

A  report  reached  the  royal  headquarters  in 
Alexandria  first  that  large  reinforcements  were  on 
their  way  by  land  to  the  besieged  Romans  from 
Syria  and  Cilicia.  It  was  true.  Mithridates  of 
Pergamum,  who  was  reputed  to  be  a  natural  son 

*  See  "  de  Bello  Alexandrine, "  24,  last  sentence. 
84 


CLEOPATRA    AND    CAESAR 

of  the  great  king  of  Pontus  by  a  Galatian  princess, 
had  been  one  of  those  sent  out  by  Caesar  to  fetch 
aid  at  the  beginning  of  his  troubles  in  Alexandria. 
He  had  succeeded  in  collecting  a  force  in  Syria 
and  Cilicia  and  had  been  joined  by  Jewish  and 
Arab  troops  under  Antipater,  father  of  Herod, 
and  the  Bedouin  chief  lamblichus.  Appearing 
before  Pelusium  in  great  strength  he  took  the 
fortress  by  storm  and  pressed  on  toward 
Alexandria.  The  Egyptian  troops  sent  from 
Alexandria  to  check  his  advance  met  him  east  of 
the  Canopic  branch  of  the  Nile  at  a  place  called 
the  Jews'  Camp  and  were  defeated.  A  messenger 
from  Mithridates  now  reached  Caesar,  who  at 
once  started  to  meet  him,  Ptolemy  having  with- 
drawn his  army  from  Alexandria  in  order  to 
retrieve  the  recent  defeat  on  the  Nile  and  so 
leaving  Caesar  free.  The  Egyptians  proceeded 
by  way  of  the  canal  running  from  Alexandria  to 
the  Canopic  branch,  while  Caesar  after  feinting 
to  sail  eastward  along  the  coast  turned  back  to  a 
point  west  of  Alexandria,  landed  his  troops,  and 
marched  round  the  south  shore  of  Lake  Mareotis, 
effecting  a  junction  with  Mithridates  before 
Ptolemy  had  got  in  touch  with  him.  A  fierce 
battle,  lasting  two  days,  took  place,  the  Egyptians 
having  fixed  their  camp  in  a  very  strong  natural 
position  on  the  Nile  bank,  protected  also  by  a 
stream  running  into  the  river  and  by  a  marsh. 
On  the  second  day  a  turning  movement  entrusted 

85 


CLEOPATRA    OF   EGYPT 

to  Carfulenus  (who  afterwards  died  fighting 
against  Antony  at  Mutina)  proved  successful. 
Carfulenus  penetrated  into  the  enemy's  camp, 
which  the  Romans  now  attacked  from  all  sides. 
The  Egyptians  gave  way,  and  in  trying  to  escape 
by  water  suffered  tremendous  losses.  Ptolemy 
suffered  the  fate  which  had  nearly  been  Caesar's 
in  the  fighting  about  the  mole  at  Alexandria.  He 
got  into  a  boat,  but  such  a  number  of  fugitives 
followed  him  that  it  sank  and  he  was  drowned. 

So  perished  at  the  age  of  about  fifteen  Cleopatra's 
brother  and  nominal  first  husband,  after  a  reign  of 
less  than  four  years,  during  which  he  appears  as 
little  more  than  a  victim  of  the  ambitions  of 
others,  of  Cleopatra,  Potheinos,  Achillas,  and 
Ganjnnedes.  As  to  his  personal  character  there 
is  nothing  to  enable  us  to  form  an  opinion  unless 
it  be  the  remark  quoted  above  from  "  The 
Alexandrian  War,"  and  that  is  certainly  not 
devoid  of  prejudice.  In  Egyptian  records  he  is 
nothing  but  a  name.  This  "  King  of  the  South 
and  the  North,  Lord  of  the  Two  Lands,  Son  of  the 
Sun,  Lord  of  Risings  "  is  a  melancholy  cipher,  only 
exceeded  perhaps  in  sadness  and  nonentity  by 
the  brother  who  took  his  place. 


86 


CHAPTER  V 

CLEOPATRA   AND   CAESAR 

{continued) 

Immediately  after  his  victory  over  the  Egyptian 
army,  Caesar  hastened  back  to  Alexandria  with 
his  mounted  troops  only.  On  March  27th,  47 
B.C.,  according  to  the  old  calendar  (answering  to 
January  14th  in  the  calendar  reformed  by  him- 
self), he  rode  through  the  streets  of  the  city 
unopposed.  He  was  right  in  assuming  that  the 
news  of  the  battle  on  the  Nile  would  break  the 
spirit  of  the  Alexandrians.  The  author  of  the  book 
on  the  War  describes  how  the  whole  mass  of  the 
townspeople,  throwing  down  their  arms  and 
abandoning  their  barricades,  dressing  themselves 
in  mourning  garments,  and  bringing  out  from  the 
temples  the  images  of  the  gods,  ran  out  to  meet 
him  and  cast  themselves  on  his  mercy.  Caesar 
cheered  them  with  kind  words  and  made  his 
way  through  their  entrenchments  into  his  own 
quarter  of  the  city,  where  he  had  a  warm 
reception  from  the  men  whom  he  had  left  behind 
as  garrison. 

87 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

Among  those  who  had  waited  anxiously  for  his 
return  was  Cleopatra,  whose  very  existence 
depended  upon  the  success  of  the  Romans.  In 
collaboration  with  her  Caesar  now  proceeded  to 
regulate  the  affairs  of  Egypt.  For  her  sake  he 
made  no  disturbance  in  the  ancient  order  of 
things.  Ptolemy  XIV  being  dead,  he  raised  to 
the  throne  with  her  Ptolemy  XV,  commonly 
called  Neoteros,  who  cannot  have  been  more  than 
eleven  years  old.  He  took  his  brother's  place  as 
king-consort  in  the  regular  Egyptian  style.  The 
unfortunate  Arsinoe  was  detained  as  a  prisoner  of 
war  and  sent  to  Rome  until  she  should  be  required 
for  the  triumphal  procession. 

For  the  second  time  Cleopatra  found  herself  on 
the  Eg5^tian  throne  with  a  boy  of  ten  or  eleven 
as  her  husband  in  name.  And  this  time  her 
situation  was  by  no  means  so  precarious  as  before. 
The  victorious  Caesar  did  not  leave  her  until 
her  position  was  consolidated.  Among  Cicero's 
letters  to  his  friend  Atticus  we  find  one  dated 
June  47,  in  which  he  speaks  of  Caesar's  long  stay 
at  Alexandria,  and  says  that  it  is  believed  that 
there  is  a  considerable  obstacle  in  the  way  of  his 
departure — valde  esse  im-pedimentum.  This  im- 
pedimentum  was  Cleopatra.  Mommsen  remarks 
of  his  favourite  hero  that  "  it  was  not  the  nature 
of  Caesar  to  take  his  departure  without  having 
accomplished  his  work,"  and  that  "  never  was 
there  greater  gaiety  in  his  camp  than  during  this 


CLEOPATRA   AND    CAESAR 

rest  at  Alexandria."*  Others  have  not  judged 
the  Dictator  so  lightly  in  this  matter.  The  stay 
in  Egypt,  indeed,  seemed  gravely  to  imperil  the 
position  of  the  Caesarian  party.  Spain  and  the 
Roman  province  of  Africa  were  in  the  possession 
of  the  ex-Pompeians,  who  had  organised  a 
regular  Senatorial  government  at  Utica,  sup- 
pori:ed  by  Juba,  King  of  Numidia.  In  lUyria 
the  refugees  from  Pharsalia  were  in  league  with 
the  wild  native  tribes.  In  Asia  Minor  Caesar's 
lieutenant,  Domitius  Calvinus,  had  been  beaten 
at  Nicopolis  by  Phamakes,  son  of  Mithridates  the 
Great  and  ruler  of  a  large  kingdom  on  the  Bosporus. 
In  Italy  things  were  not  going  at  all  well  in  Caesar's 
absence,  as  he  might  well  have  suspected.  Yet 
after  his  settlement  of  Egyptian  affairs  the 
Dictator  prolonged  his  stay  in  Egypt  well  into 
the  spring  of  47,  until  he  had  spent  in  all  nine 
months  in  this  part  of  the  world.  He  set  the  bad 
example  which  Antony  after  him  was  to  follow. 
Instead  of  taking  the  sound  advice  which 
Potheinos  had  given  him,  to  go  whither  his 
business    called    him,    he    devoted    his   time    to 

♦  "  History  of  Rome,"  V.  p.  276.  But  he  admits  on  p.  282 
that  "  this  Alexandrian  insurrection,  insignificant  as  it  was 
in  itself  and  slight  as  was  its  intrinsic  connection  with  the 
events  of  importance  in  the  world's  history  which  took  place 
at  the  same  time  in  the  Roman  State,  had  nevertheless  so 
far  a  momentous  influence  on  them  that  it  compelled  the  man 
who  was  all  in  all  and  without  whom  nothing  could  be 
despatched  and  nothing  could  be  solved  to  leave  his  proper 
tasks  in  abeyance  from  October  48  to  March  47  in  order  to 
fight  along  with  Jews  and  Bedouins  against  a  city  rabble." 

89 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

"  exploring  the  country  in  company  with  Cleo- 
patra and  enjoying  himself  with  her  in  other 
ways,"  as  Appian  expresses  it.  Suetonius  says 
that  he  would  have  carried  his  explorations  as  far 
as  the  frontier  of  Ethiopia,  had  not  his  troops 
refused  to  follow  him. 

On  their  journey  up  the  Nile  Caesar  and 
Cleopatra  were  escorted  by  four  hundred  ships, 
according  to  Appian  ;  and  they  travelled  in  a 
thalamegos,  one  of  those  vast  floating  palaces  such 
as  Athenaeus,  quoting  from  an  earlier  writer, 
describes.  Ptolemy  IV  Philopator  has  the  credit 
of  being  the  first  designer  of  the  thalamegos  or 
"  carrier  of  the  (royal)  bed-chamber."  Three 
hundred  feet  long  by  forty-five  wide  and  sixty 
high,  measured  from  the  water-line  to  the  top  of 
the  framework  of  the  awning ;  two-decked, 
double-prowed,  and  double-sterned ;  propelled 
by  bank  upon  bank  of  oarsmen*  and  a  huge  linen 
sail,  purple  fringed,  on  a  mast  over  one  hundred 
feet  high, — ^these  thalamegoi  were  constructed  in 
a  style  calculated  to  please  even  a  modem 
millionaire.  As  one  set  foot  on  the  vessel,  the 
first  thing  which  met  the  eye  was  an  open 
colonnade,  leading  to  a  covered  ante-room,  which 
in  its  turn  led  into  another  colonnade  in  the  centre 
of  the  ship,  open  to  the  air  above,  and  having 

*  The  somewhat  larger  warships  designed  by  Ptolemy 
Philopator,  measuring  520  feet  by  60  by  about  80  at  the 
stem,  had  forty  banks  of  oars,  of  which  the  longest  were 
nearly  sixty  feet  long  (Athenaeus,  V.  37). 

90 


CLEOPATRA    AND    CAESAR 

round  it  rows  of  pillars  and  four  sets  of  folding- 
doors.  From  this  one  entered  the  great  ban- 
queting-saloon,  built  of  cedar  and  cypress  wood, 
with  column  of  cypress  adorned  with  Corinthian 
capitals  and  decorations  of  gold  and  ivory.  The 
roof  was  of  cypress  with  all  the  carvings  overlaid 
with  gilt,  and  the  doors  round  the  saloon,  twenty 
in  number,  of  citron  wood  with  brass  nails  and 
fastenings.  Twenty  couches  could  be  placed  in 
this  banqueting-hall,  which  would  therefore  ac- 
commodate sixty  guests.  There  was,  however, 
a  similar  room,  with  nine  couches,  on  the  same 
deck,  as  well  as  a  large  number  of  sleeping- 
chambers  for  men  and  for  women.  On  the  upper 
deck  were  more  dining-rooms  and  more  bedrooms, 
a  chapel  of  Aphrodite,  and  a  room  dedicated  to 
Dionysos,  which  seems  from  the  description 
quoted  by  Athenaeus  to  have  been  yet  another 
hall  for  feasts,  although  it  also  contained  an 
artificial  cave  built  of  a  combination  of  natural 
stone  and  of  gold.  There  was,  moreover,  on  this 
deck  one  dining-room  in  the  Egyptian  style,  with 
walls  of  alternate  lines  of  black  and  white  bricks, 
round  columns  decorated  with  lotus,  palm,  and 
other  native  ornamentation,  and  Egyptian 
furniture.  Apart  from  this  room  the  archi- 
tecture, decorations,  and  upholstery  were  Greek 
throughout. 

In  such  a  moment  of  Alexandrian  Greek  luxury 
Caesar  ascended  the  Nile  in  the  company  of  the 

91 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

queen  who  made  him  forget  his  duties  to  his 
country.  We  might  imagine  from  the  account  of 
the  thalamegos  that  there  was  Httle  provision  on 
board  for  anything  but  eating,  drinking,  and 
sleeping,  vast  scope  as  there  was  for  these. 
Cleopatra,  however,  was  well  fitted  to  introduce 
an  atmosphere  of  refinement  into  an  environment 
which  might  otherwise  only  suggest  a  life  of 
debauchery,  congenial  to  an  Antony,  but  hardly 
to  a  man  of  the  intellect  of  Julius  Caesar — 
although  we  should  perhaps  do  well  to  remember 
that  in  his  youth  Caesar  showed  a  very  strong 
liking  for  most  of  the  pleasures  to  which  Antony 
remained  a  devotee  throughout  his  life.  Cleopatra 
now  surrounded  him  with  sensual  allurements, 
whUe  at  the  same  time  preventing  them  from 
becoming  too  gross  for  his  mature  taste.*  With 
her  mental  and  bodily  gifts,  added  to  the  power 
with  which  her  wealth  furnished  her  of  displa3dng 
a  dazzling  hospitality,  she  made  it  very  difficult 
for  him  to  tear  himself  away  from  her  society. 

Nevertheless,  when  the  month  of  June  (Old 
Style)  arrived,  Caesar  decided  that  he  could  no 
longer  delay  his  departure  for  Syria.     Whether  or 

*  M.  Henry  Houssaye  describes  the  situation  admirably  : 
"  With  Caesar  Cleopatra  instinctively  played  the  part  of  a 
crowned  Aspasia,  never  ceasing  to  be  the  charmer,  but 
joining  dignity  to  grace,  hiding  the  courtesan  under  the 
queen,  showing  an  even  temper  every  day,  expressing  herself 
in  chosen  language,  talking  of  politics,  art,  and  literature, 
lifting  without  an  effort  her  wonderful  faculties  to  the 
supreme  level  of  the  Dictator's  intelligence  "  ("  Aspasie — 
C16opatre — Theodora,"  p.  122). 

92 


CLEOPATRA    AND    CAESAR 

not  his  troops  became  mutinous,  as  Suetonius 
suggests,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  urgent 
messages  must  have  been  reaching  him  in  Egypt 
about  the  dangers  threatening  his  position  if  he 
did  not  show  himself  to  be  still  an  active  force. 
He  took  leave  therefore  of  Cleopatra.  But  before 
starting  on  the  campaign  of  which  he  is  alleged 
to  have  written  the  famous  despatch  "  Veni,  vidi, 
vici,"  he  presented  to  his  mistress  three  of  his 
legions  to  act  as  a  bodyguard  for  her  and  to 
preserve  her  authority  in  Alexandria  as  the 
Gabinians  had  preserved  that  of  her  father. 
At  their  head  he  put  a  trusted  freedman, 
Rufinus,  who  doubtless  had  instructions  to  watch 
over  his  master's  interests  as  well  as  those  of 
Cleopatra. 

Caesar  also  left  with  Cleopatra  another 
memorial  of  his  visit  to  Egypt,  namely,  a  child, 
who  seems  to  have  been  bom  in  the  month  of 
June,  according  to  the  new  calendar,  some  two 
months  after  the  Dictator  had  started  for  Syria. 
There  is  no  real  reason  for  doubting  the  parentage 
of  this  boy.  Through  the  influence  of  Augustus, 
the  Dictator's  heir,  who  put  him  to  death, 
Caesarion's  Roman  blood  was  afterwards  denied, 
and  we  find  the  denial  accepted  by  Dion  Cassius. 
Plutarch  makes  the  Alexandrians  give  him  the 
name  Caesarion,  as  though  it  were  a  mere  nick- 
name. But  Caesarion  is  only  the  diminutive 
of  Caesar,  which  was  part  of  the  boy's  legal  name 

93 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

in  Egypt,  as  appears  from  inscriptions — for 
instance,  in  a  priestly  decree  on  a  bilingual  stele 
from  Thebes,  removed  to  Turin,  wherein  he 
is  called  "  Ptolemy,  who  is  also  Caesar,  the 
god  Philopator  Philometor."  Suetonius  quotes 
"  certain  Greeks "  as  saying  that  Caesarion 
resembled  Julius  Caesar  both  in  looks  and  in 
walk ;  and  we  may  conclude  that  there  was  the 
best  of  reasons  for  this  resemblance. 

Cleopatra  herself  had  no  scruple  in  acknow- 
ledging Julius  Caesar  as  the  father  of  her  child, 
although  she  had  been  at  least  nominally  the  wife 
of  Ptolemy  XIV  within  half  a  year  of  Caesarion's 
birth.  But  in  order  to  conciliate  native  Egyp- 
tian sentiment,  which  was  for  her  exceedingly 
necessary,  she  sought  the  aid  of  the  priests  to 
revive  an  old  religious  fiction  which  had  first 
been  introduced,  perhaps,  by  the  great  Queen 
Hatshepsut  and  was  later  used  by  the  Pharaoh 
Amenothes  III.*  Hatshepsut's  father  had  been 
the  son  of  a  royal  concubine  only,  whereas  her 
mother  was  of  the  full  race  of  the  Sun.  Therefore 
in  the  sculptures  in  Hatshepsut's  temple  at  Deir 
El-Bahari  it  was  shown  how  her  mother  was 
visited  by  the  god  Amon-Ra,  assuming  the  guise 

*  Some  Egyptologists  consider  that  this  divine  birth  was 
supposed  in  the  case  of  all  the  Pharaohs.  See  M.  A.  Moret, 
"  Du  caractfere  religieux  de  la  royaut6  pharaonique."  But 
they  do  not  deny  that  it  was  particularly  insisted  upon  in 
the  three  cases  of  Hatshepsut,  Amenothes  III,  and  Ptolemy 
Caesarion. 

94 


CLEOPATRA    AND    CAESAR 

of  the  Pharaoh  Thothmoses  I,  and  how  from  this 
meeting  came  the  child  Hatshepsut,  a  genuine 
daughter  of  the  Sun  on  both  sides.  Similarly  at 
Luxor  the  birth  of  Amenothes  III  is  explained. 
And  now  again,  in  the  temple  which  she  decorated 
at  the  Upper  Egyptian  town  of  Hermonthis 
(Erment) ,  Cleopatra  the  Lagid  invokes — or,  rather 
we  should  say,  invoked,  for  the  stones  of  the 
temple  were  unfortunately  carried  away  in  the  last 
century  to  build  a  sugar-factory  with — the  as- 
sistance of  Amon  to  secure  for  her  son  his  full 
complement  of  that  Solar  blood  which  was  as- 
sumed to  run  in  the  veins  of  the  Ptolemies  after 
they  took  the  place  of  the  ancient  kings  of  Egypt. 
The  sculptures  of  these  "  divine  births  "  re- 
present with  minute  detail,  but  with  no  unpleasant 
realism,  the  whole  story  for  the  eyes  of  the  faithful. 
We  see  Amon  preparing  the  gods  in  heaven  for 
the  birth  of  a  Pharaoh,  and  then  descending  to 
earth,  attended  by  Thoth,  and  visiting  the  queen, 
taking  upon  himself  the  appearance  of  her  human 
husband.  We  see  the  Sun-god  and  the  queen 
sitting  together  on  a  couch  upheld  by  the  goddesses 
Neit  and  Selkit,  while  the  accompanying  text 
describes  for  us  the  majesty  of  the  god  revealing 
itself  under  his  mortal  shape,  and  the  grateful 
adoration  by  the  queen  of  Amon,  Lord  of  Karnak, 
Lord  of  Thebes.  We  see  Khnumu,  the  divine 
potter,  fashioning  the  infant  on  his  wheel,  assisted 
by  Heqt  or  by  Hathor.     We  see  Khnumu  and 

95 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

Heqt  leading  the  queen  to  her  bedchamber, 
where  she  gives  birth  to  the  child  and  its  double, 
aided  by  Isis  and  Nephthys  and  other  attendant 
divinities  and  acclaimed  by  the  spirits  of  the 
North  and  South  and  East  and  West,  while  the 
grotesque  god  Bes  and  the  hippopotamus  goddess 
Taurt  stand  by  to  avert  witchcraft  and  all  ill-luck. 
We  see  the  child  presented  by  Hathor  to  its 
heavenly  father,  who  receives  it  with  joy  and 
acknowledges  it  as  his  own,  and  lastly  We  see  it, 
with  its  double,  suckled  by  Hathor  both  in  her 
goddess  and  in  her  cow  form,  and  purified  with 
all  due  ceremonies  by  the  gods.* 

Side  by  side  with  the  representation  of  Caesar- 
ion's  birth  from  Cleopatra  at  Hermonthis  was 
another  of  the  birth  of  Horus  from  his  mother  Isis 
among  the  reeds  at  Buto,  as  though  it  were  in- 
tended to  give  an  extra  touch  of  pious  solemnity 
to  the  outcome  of  the  intrigue  between  Cleopatra 
and  Julius  Caesar.  History  fails  to  provide  a 
parallel  to  this  glorification  of  an  illegitimate 
birth.  We  must  suppose  that  with  the  aid  of  the 
priesthood  Cleopatra  succeeded  in  imposing  on  her 
Egyptians  the  legend  so  curiously  depicted  at 
Hermonthis.  We  find  in  an  epitaph  fourteen 
years  later  the  date  of  "  the  twentieth  year  of 
Cleopatra  united  to  Amon."  M.  Bouche-Leclercq 
points  out  that  then  (33  or  32  B.C.)  Amon's  name 

♦  Moret,  pp.  48  ff.  ;  Bouchd-Leclercq,  "  Histoire  des 
Lagides,"  III.  pp.  8-1 1. 

96 


CLEOPATRA   AND    CAESAR 

was  Antony  !  But  the  mass  of  the  Egyptians 
were  accustomed  to  tolerate  the  strangest  beha- 
viour of  their  rulers  under  the  cloak  of  religion. 
It  would  be  interesting  to  know  what  were  the 
comments  of  her  sceptical  Greek  subjects  upon 
the  claim  advanced  by  this  spouse  of  Amon.  Not 
all  were  as  respectful  as  the  simple-minded 
Herodotus,  we  may  be  sure,  to  the  beliefs  and 
ceremonies  with  which  Egypt  brought  them  in 
contact. 

We  now  lose  sight  of  Cleopatra  for  more  than 
a  year.  When  she  appears  again  it  is  no  more  in 
the  guise  of  the  mysterious  consort  of  the  Sun-god 
and  mother  of  his  divine  offspring,  but  as  a  foreign 
queen  visiting  Rome,  the  recognised  and  tolerated, 
but  at  the  same  time  widely  hated,  mistress  of  the 
great  general  who  had  returned  home  to  celebrate 
the  victories  won  by  him  in  so  many  parts  of  the 
world.  In  the  interval  the  absence  of  any  reports 
of  disturbances  in  Egypt  seems  to  indicate  that 
turbulent  Alexandria  had  been  too  exhausted  by 
the  siege  to  do  otherwise  than  accept  the  rule 
of  Cleopatra,  supported  as  she  was  by  the  presence 
of  three  Roman  legions  ;  while  the  rest  of  the 
country  was  not  prone  to  rise  against  a  monarch 
who  respected  its  religion  and  did  not  impose 
a  more  than  usually  heavy  burden  of  taxation 
upon  it. 

Julius  Caesar  after  his  campaign  in  Pontus  had 
returned  to  Rome  to  repair  the  errors  committed 

97  4 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

in  his  absence  by  Antony  and  others  among  his 
adherents.  Then  he  had  gone  to  Africa  and 
crushed  the  Senatorial  party  and  their  Numidian 
aUies  at  Thapsus.  Once  more  in  Rome,  he  waited 
the  celebration  of  his  fourfold  triumph  over 
Gaul,  Egypt,  Pontus,  and  Numidia,  before  setting 
out  to  Spain.  The  battle  of  Munda  in  March  45, 
in  the  flight  from  which  was  killed  Cnaeus  Pom- 
peius,  Cleopatra's  reputed  first  lover,  completed 
the  ruin  of  the  former  Pompeians,  and  in  the  spring 
of  the  same  year  the  conqueror  returned  for  his 
second  triumph. 

At  the  earlier  ceremony  in  June  46,  the  principal 
captives  who  had  figured  in  the  procession  through 
the  streets  of  Rome  were  Vercingetorix,  the  brave 
Gallic  chieftain,  Arsinoe,  and  Juba,  infant  son  of 
the  Numidian  king.  With  Arsinoe  in  the  Egyp- 
tian section  were  the  eunuch  Ganymedes,*  images 
of  Potheinos  and  Achillas,  a  statue  representing 
the  Nile,  and  a  miniature  Pharos,  according  to  the 
custom  which  must  have  made  a  Roman  triumph 
look  somewhat  like  a  London  Lord  Mayor's  Show. 
Appian  says  that  the  people  rejoiced  over  Achillas 
and  Potheinos,  Dion  that  they  pitied  Arsinoe  as 
she  was  led  along  in  chains.  At  the  end  of  the  day 
Vercingetorix  was  put  to  death,  as  was  Ganymedes 
(if  he  was  there)  ;  Arsinoe  was  spared,  to  be  killed 
five  years  later  at  her  sister's  instigation,  and  Juba 

*  So  at  least  it  appears  from  the  words  of  the  scholiast  on 
Lucan,  "  Pharsalia,"  X.  521. 

98 


CLEOPATRA    AND    CAESAR 

to  become  client  of  Augustus,  king  of  Mauretania, 
and  husband  of  the  daughter  of  Cleopatra. 

It  is  a  disputed  point  whether  Cleopatra  arrived 
in  Rome  before  the  year  of  the  second  or  Spanish 
triumph.  Dion  makes  her  come  soon  after  the 
first,  and  some  writers  would  have  her  present  to 
see  it.*  But  Caesar  is  not  likely  to  have  invited 
her  to  Rome  until  he  had  crushed  his  enemies  and 
could  offer  her  the  safeguard  of  his  presence.  He 
could  not  feel  so  sure  of  the  Romans  as  to  imagine 
her  secure  from  insult  during  his  absence. 

Cleopatra,  therefore,  probably  arrived  in  Rome 
in  the  summer  of  45,  accompanied  by  her  boy- 
husband  Ptolemy  XV  and  possibly  by  Caesarion, 
whom  doubtless  Caesar  wished  to  see.  She  was 
lodged  in  Caesar's  Transtiberini  horti,  a  villa  sur- 
rounded by  fine  gardens  on  the  right  bank  of  the 
Tiber,  near  the  site  of  the  modern  Villa  Panfili. 
Here  she  lived  splendidly,  courted  by  the 
Caesarians  and  by  those  whose  interest  it  was  to 
appear  to  be  Caesarians  ;  by  all  the  leading  men  of 
the  day,  in  fact.  Among  those  who  came  to  visit 
her  was  Cicero  ;  and  one  of  his  letters  to  Atticus 
contains  a  passage  which  is  extremely  interesting 

*  In  any  case  Dr.  Mahaffy  hardly  seems  justified  in  saying 
("  Empire  of  the  Ptolemies,"  p.  460),  with  reference  to  Arsinoe 
walking  in  the  triumph  :  "  We  cannot  but  see  the  dark  in- 
fluence of  Cleopatra  here.  Had  .she  said  one  word  against 
the  public  exhibition  of  her  sister  as  a  captive,  Caesar  would 
not  have  insisted  ;  I  am  disposed  to  go  further  and  say  that, 
had  she  not  pressed  him  to  do  it,  such  a  scene  would  not 
have  taken  place." 

99 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

as  showing  how  a  Roman  gentleman,  though  not 
above  asking  a  favour  of  the  Egyptian  queen,  felt 
toward  her  and  her  followers.  Cicero  evidently 
asked  Cleopatra  for  some  books  from  Alexandria, 
and  was  received  with  fair  words  but  nothing  more. 
This  is  how  he  writes,  after  the  event  : 

"  I  detest  the  Queen  ;  and  the  voucher  for  her 
promises,  Hammonios,  knows  that  I  have  good 
cause  for  saying  so.  What  she  promised,  indeed, 
were  all  things  of  the  learned  sort  and  suitable  to 
my  character — such  as  I  could  avow  even  in  a 
public  meeting.  As  for  Sara,  besides  finding  him 
an  unprincipled  rascal,  I  also  found  him  inclined 
to  give  himself  airs  toward  me.  I  only  saw  him 
once  at  my  house  ;  and  when  I  asked  him  politely 
what  I  could  do  for  him,  he  said  that  he  had  come 
in  hopes  of  seeing  Atticus.  The  Queen's  insolence, 
too,  when  she  was  living  in  Caesar's  Transtiberine 
villa,  I  cannot  recall  without  a  pang.  So  I  won't 
have  anything  to  do  with  that  lot.  They  think 
not  so  much  that  I  have  no  spirit  as  that  I  have 
scarcely  any  proper  pride  at  all."* 

Cicero  was  only  one  of  very  many  at  Rome  who 
detested  the  Queen.  The  objection  was  hardly 
on  the  ground  of  morals.  In  this  "  city  of  adul- 
tery and  prostitution,"  as  M.  Henry  Houssaye 
calls  it,  where  the  most  notorious  women  were  all 


*  "  Ad  Atticum,"  XV.  15.  The  translation  is,  with  slight 
alteration,  from  Mr.  Shuckburgh.  "  Sara  "  is  Sarapion  or 
Serapion  a  common  name  in  Egypt  under  the  Ptolemies. 

100 


CLEOPATRA    AND    CAESAR 

of  aristocratic  family,  like  Mucia,  TertuUa,  Junia, 
Valeria,  Sempronia,  wives  of  Pompey,  Crassus, 
Lepidus,  Hortensius,  and  Junius  Brutus,  there 
could  be  no  outcry  against  Cleopatra  merely 
because  she  was  the  mother  of  Caesar's  child  and 
yet  not  Caesar's  wife.  But  there  was  another 
aspect  of  the  question.  To  quote  M.  Houssaye 
again  :  "In  the  midst  of  her  debauchery  and  the 
loss  of  her  ancient  virtues,  Rome  had  kept  the 
pride  of  the  Roman  name.  ...  In  bringing  this 
woman  to  the  City  of  the  Seven  Hills,  in  publicly 
recognising  her  as  his  mistress,  in  displaying  before 
the  eyes  of  all  the  unparalleled  spectacle  of  a 
Roman  citizen,  five  times  Consul  and  thrice  Dic- 
tator, the  lover  of  an  Egyptian,  it  seems  that 
according  to  the  ideas  of  the  day  Caesar  outraged 
Rome."  * 

It  was  as  an  Egyptian  that  Cleopatra  offended 
the  Romans.  Merivale  has  said  that  an  Egyptian 
woman  then  was  like  a  Jewess  in  the  Middle  Ages. 
The  Romans  paid  no  attention  to  Cleopatra's 
Macedonian  descent ;  nor  perhaps  would  they 
have  been  inclined  to  think  better  of  her  for  being 
a  Greek.  Like  all  conquering  races,  ancient  or 
modern,  they  despised  every  foreigner.  They 
undoubtedly,  however,  despised  Orientals  most, 
and,  regardless  of  their  own  morals,  charged  them 
with  an  utter  lack  of  morality.  Caesar  v»as  too 
bold  in  his  defiance  of  such  sentiments.     Appian 

♦  "  Aspasie — C16opatre — Theodora,"  pp.  91-2. 
101 


CLEOPATRA    OF    EGYPT 

declares  that  when,  in  fulfilment  of  the  vow  which 
he  had  made  before  Pharsalia,  Caesar  built  a 
temple  in  Rome  to  his  divine  ancestress  Venus 
Genetrix,  he  placed  beside  the  image  of  the  goddess 
a  beautiful  statue  of  Cleopatra,  which  was  still 
there  in  his  own  day.  When  the  Dictator  dis- 
played his  infatuation  to  this  extent,  it  can  hardly 
be  wondered  at  that  extraordinary  rumours  began 
to  spread  about  concerning  the  Oriental  ideas 
which  he  had  conceived.  He  was  accused  of 
planning  to  move  the  capital  of  the  Empire  either 
to  Alexandria  or  to  the  site  of  Troy.  It  was  also 
said,  but  possibly  only  after  his  death,  that  one  of 
the  tribunes  of  the  people  intended  to  introduce  a 
law  to  enable  him  to  have  more  than  one  wife  and, 
if  he  wished,  to  marry  a  non-Roman,  in  which  case 
he  might  have  wedded  Cleopatra  and  declared 
Caesarion  his  heir.* 

The  Ides  of  March,  however,  arrived  in  time 
to  prevent  the  verification  of  such  rumours.  After 
his  Spanish  triumph  Caesar  had  left  himself  only 
one  war  to  wage.  The  defeat  and  slaughter  of 
Crassus  by  the  Parthians  in  53,  with  the  accom- 
panying loss  of  the  "  eagles  "  which  led  the  legions 
to  battle,  still  remained  unavenged,  an  intolerable 
stain  on  the  name  of  Rome.  As  soon  as  the  civil 
wars  were  at  an  end,  every  Roman  looked  to  the 

*  Professor  Ferrero  thinks  that  Cleopatra  probably  came 
to  Rome  to  propose  to  Caesar  the  plan  of  becoming  King  of 
Egypt  through  marriage  with  her. 

102 


CLEOPATRA    AND    CAESAR 

Dictator  to  remove  this  stain.  In  anticipation  of 
this  crusade  to  recover  the  eagles,  the  pious  con- 
sulted the  Sibylline  Books,  and  it  was  alleged  that 
they  discovered  there  an  oracle  to  the  effect 
that  "  the  Parthians  could  only  be  conquered  by 
a  king."  Antony  attempted  to  take  advantage 
of  this  saying  by  offering  his  master  a  crown, 
which  was  refused  in  the  well-known  scene  which 
Shakespeare  made  his  own.  Not  waiting  to  be- 
come a  king,  Caesar  planned  to  set  out  for  the  East 
on  March  19th,  B.C.  44.  Four  days  before  he 
could  execute  his  project  he  was  murdered  by 
those  whom  he  had  treated  best. 

The  immediate  action  of  Cleopatra  upon  the 
death  of  her  patron  and  lover  did  not  seem  to 
any  contemporary  writer  important  enough  to 
record.  Suetonius  makes  Caesar  send  her  back 
to  Egypt  before  his  murder,  loaded  with  honours 
and  presents.  But  Cicero's  letter  to  Atticus, 
written  at  his  villa  at  Sinuessa  on  April  15th, 
seems  conclusive  against  this  story.  Although 
Cicero  merely  says,  "  I  am  not  sorry  that  the 
Queen  has  fled,"  "  the  Queen  "  can  be  no  other 
than  Cleopatra.*  From  the  date  of  the  letter  it 
may  be  supposed  that  the  flight  did  not  take  place 
until  April.  There  were  many  reasons  why  she 
should  not  delay.  She  cannot  have  been  imaware 
that  she  was  hated  and  despised  in  Rome,  even 

*  Froude  in  his  "  Life  of  Caesar,"  suggests  that  she  might 
be  Arsinoe  I 

103 


CLEOPATRA    OF    EGYPT 

if  she  did  not  understand  that  Caesar's  connection 
with  her  contributed  to  exciting  feeUng  against 
him.  Can  she  have  placed  any  hope  in  the  fact 
that  Caesarion  was  the  dead  man's  child  ? 
Antony,  who  had  been  taken  back  into  Caesar's 
favour  after  a  short  period  of  disgrace  owing  to  his 
*  bad  conduct  of  affairs  in  Rome  during  the  Dic- 
tator's absence,  must  have  seen  Cleopatra  occa- 
sionally while  she  lived  in  the  villa  across  the  Tiber, 
and  he  in  later  years  insisted  on  recognising 
Caesarion  as  Caesar's  son.  It  is  at  least  possible 
that  Cleopatra  hoped  that  Antony,  temporarilj'- 
sole  consul  at  Rome,  might  have  influence  enough 
to  get  the  boy  acknowledged  as  heir.  Caesar's 
will,  which  made  his  grandnephew  his  heir,  was  a 
death-blow  to  any  such  hopes,  and,  being  accepted, 
willingly  or  unwillingly,  by  all  parties,  left 
Cleopatra  nothing  to  do  but  return  to  Alexandria. 
The  uncertainty  of  affairs  throughout  Italy  after 
the  murder  of  the  Ides  of  March  may  account 
for  the  fact  that  she  was  not  able  to  reach  the 
coast  at  once  and  sail  for  her  kingdom. 

One  mystery  remains  in  connection  with  Cleo- 
patra's flight.  If  she  had  brought  Caesar^on  with 
her  to  Rome  she  took  him  back  safely,  for  he 
reappears  again  in  Egypt.  But  what  became  of 
Ptolemy  XV,  her  titular  husband  ?  We  hear 
of  him  coming  to  Rome  with  her,  but  nothing  of 
his  flight  with  her  or  of  his  being  alive  afterwards. 
Porphyry  does  say  that  lie  died  "  through  the 

104 


CLEOPATRA   AND    CAESAR 

treachery  of  Cleopatra  "  in  the  fourth  year  of  his 
and  the  eighth  year  of  her  reign  ;  and  Josephus 
that  she  poisoned  him  at  the  age  of  fifteen. 
Josephus,  having  as  great  a  hatred  for  Cleopatra 
as  for  all  the  Ptolemies  who  were  not  pro- Jewish, 
is  not  a  witness  on  whom  we  can  rely  concerning 
her,  apart  from  all  questions  as  to  his  general 
truthfulness.  We  know  that  Cleopatra  was  un- 
justly accused  of  instigating  Caesar  to  put  to  death 
Ptolemy  XIV,  although  it  is  agreed  that  he  died^ 
in  battle,  or  rather  during  flight  after  battle,  his 
body  being  found  and  recognised  by  his  golden 
corselet.  It  cannot  be  decided  whether  Cleopatra 
had  any  hand  in  her  younger  brother's  death. 
Ptolemy  XV  fades  out  of  history  an  even  more 
shadowy  figure  than  Ptolemy  XIV.  Porphyry's 
record  of  his  decease  in  his  fourth  and  Cleopatra's 
eighth  year  of  rule  has  been  generally  accepted, 
but  the  questions  as  to  the  place  and  manner  of 
the  decease  have  necessarily  been  left  unanswered 
through  lack  of  evidence. 

Cleopatra  returned  to  her  kingdom  in  the  late 
spring  of  44,  and  when  we  next  hear  of  her  she 
is  ruling  it  in  nominal  conjunction  with  her  infant 
son  Ptolemy  Caesarion,  the  last  Son  of  the  Sun 
whom  Egj'pt  was  to  see. 


105  4* 


CHAPTER  VI 

Cleopatra's  kingdom 

We  may  perhaps  most  conveniently  pause  at 
this  stage  to  consider  what  was  the  possession 
which  Cleopatra,  like  her  father  before  her,  strove 
with  all  the  curious  diplomatic  resources  of  the 
weak  struggling  against  the  strong  to  preserve 
from  the  Roman  grasp  ;  to  consider,  in  fact,  the 
character  of  this  land  of  Egypt,  with  its  capital 
Alexandria,  which  alone  of  the  countries  then 
accounted  civilised  awaited  to  be  absorbed  by  the 
earth-hunger  of  Rome. 

No  saying  of  Herodotus  is  better  known  than 
that  which  he  quotes  from  Hecataeus  about  Egypt 
being  "  the  gift  of  the  river  "  Nile,  and  the  truth 
of  the  remark  is  clear  to  us  when  we  reflect  that 
the  region  known  as  the  Delta,  or  Lower  Egypt, 
is  merely  a  gigantic  deposit  of  soil  brought  from 
the  interior  of  Africa  by  the  waters  of  the  river. 
It  is  familiar,  too,  that  upon  the  Nile  depends  the 
whole  existence  of  life  in  Egj^pt.  This  has  been 
recognised  from  the  earliest  times  down  to  to-day, 
with  its  great  barrage-construction  which  has  in- 
flicted so  much  pain  on  the  archaeologists.  The 
Nile,  then,  has  always  been  everything  to  Egypt. 

io6 


CLEOPATRA'S    KINGDOM 

But,  given  the  Nile,  Egypt  was  from  of  old 
entirely  self-supporting,  and  able,  moreover,  to 
supply  the  other  countries  aroimd  the  Mediter- 
ranean Sea  with  vast  quantities  from  her  super- 
fluity. Wheat,  barley,  maize,  flax,  cattle-fodder, 
indigo,  henna,  oils,  and  all  kinds  of  fruit  and 
vegetables  were  only  a  few  of  the  items  which  could 
be  produced  in  such  plenty  as  to  leave  a  most 
profitable  export  trade  after  the  home  demand 
had  been  satisfied.  The  manufacturers  of  paper, 
of  fabrics  of  all  varieties^  of  embroideries,  of  glass- 
ware, of  furniture,  of  ivory  and  metal  ornaments,  of 
enamels  and  jewelry,  likewise  were  in  a  position  to 
supply  the  outside  world  abundantly.  Even  the 
bad  government  of  the  later  Ptolemies  could  not 
damage  the  marvellous  fecundity  and  wealth  of 
Egypt.  A  despotic  and  minutely  inquisitorial 
system  of  taxation  ground  down  the  inhabitants, 
but  still  the  land  continued  to  yield  apparently 
inexhaustible  riches.  So  much  were  Egypt  and 
money  considered  by  the  Romans  convertible 
terms  that,  as  we  have  seen,  the  aristocracy  feared 
to  put  it  in  the  power  of  any  one  of  their  number  to 
handle  the  affairs  of  Eg>^pt.  And  so  great  were  the 
revenues  flowing  into  the  royal  coffers  that,  apart 
from  the  very  exceptional  case  of  Auletes,  we 
never  hear  of  a  member  of  the  Lagid  house,  male 
or  female,  being  in  need  of  ready  money. 

The  people  who  inhabited  this  extraordinarily 
fertile  country  were  the  most  industrious  of  the 

107 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

ancient  world.  In  their  effort  to  satisfy  what 
M.  Bouche-Leclercq  well  calls  "  the  devouring 
appetite  of  those  awful  and  venerable  beings,  the 
gods,  the  kings,  the  priests,  and  the  dead  who 
occupied  for  them  the  realm  of  the  ideal,"*  they 
could  find  as  little  time  for  rest  as  the  modern 
Chinese  peasantry.  Like  the  latter,  also,  and  for 
much  the  same  causes,  the  Egyptian  natives, 
though  of  peculiarly  persistent  racial  type  and 
profoundly  attached  to  the  traditions  of  their 
country,  were  little  animated  by  a  sense  of  national 
unity  and  prone  to  indulge  in  feuds  of  village 
against  village  and  district  against  district.  From 
the  point  of  view  of  a  foreign  dynasty  this  is  an 
admirable  temperament  in  subjects,  and  the 
Lagidae  early  recognised  that  the  easiest  way  to 
rule  the  Egyptians  was  not  by  attempting  to 
Hellenise  them,  but  by  leaving  them,  to  a  large 
extent,  under  the  system  of  provincial  government 
to  which  they  had  for  centuries  been  accustomed,! 
only  organising  more  thoroughly  the  tax-collect- 
ing machinery  so  as  to  extract  the  utmost  possible 
amount  of  money  in  order  to  pay  for  the  luxury 
of  royalty  and  the  upkeep  of  a  mercenary  army. 
The  ancient  Egyptian  theory  which  made  the 
whole  country  the  royal  domain  was  very  easy  of 
acceptance    by    the    Ptolemies,    and    the    long- 

*  "  Histoire  des  Lagides,"  III.  p.  125. 

f  We  may  compare  what  Great  Britain  has  done  in  China 
with  the  villages  in  the  Kowloon  and  Weihaiwei  territories. 

108 


CLEOPATRA'S    KINGDOM 

suffering  fellaheen  were  too  accustomed  to 
dynastic  changes  to  see  any  reason  for  combating 
a  theory  because  Macedonians  had  replaced  on  the 
throne  native  families,  Hyksos,  Ethiopians, 
Assyrians,  and  Persians.  Until  taxation  became 
so  heavy  as  to  leave  the  fellah  without  even  the 
means  of  maintaining  life  for  himself  and  his 
family,  he  did  not  feel  incUned  to  revolt. 

As  for  the  Egyptians  of  higher  rank  than  the 
peasantry,  the  old  feudal  nobility  had  been  swept 
away  by  the  hand  of  time,  aided  by  the  wars  which 
had  ended  the  rule  of  the  last  native  dynasties. 
The  rich  men  devoted  themselves  to  the  amassing 
of  more  wealth  and  asserted  themselves  very  sel- 
dom. Numbers  of  them  attached  themselves  to 
the  Court,  as  we  see  in  the  histories  of  Ptolemy 
Auletes  and  his  children,  and  lived  the  same  kind 
of  lives  as  their  Greek  competitors  and  colleagues 
in  ofhce.  That  vast  body  the  priesthood,  which 
continued  to  attract  so  many  of  the  well-bom,  was 
skilfuUy  concUiated  by  all  the  Ptolemies,  good  or 
bad,  and  proved  one  of  their  most  serviceable 
instruments  in  the  peaceful  direction  of  the 
country'.  Cleopatra  herself,  as  much  as  any  of  her 
ancestors,  took  care  to  keep  on  good  terms  with  the 
ministers  of  the  gods  whose  chief  representative  on 
earth,  little  as  she  might  personally  care  about 
them,  her  position  made  her  in  the  eyes  of  the  bulk 
of  her  subjects. 

The  first  Ptolemies  had  some  idea  of  putting 
109 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

Greek  leaven  in  the  Egyptian  lump,  as  was  shown 
by  their  establishment  in  various  districts  of 
colonies  of  veterans  from  their  army  and  by  the 
foundation  of  at  least  one  town  in  Upper  Egypt, 
Ptolemais,  which  shared  with  the  long  pre- 
Macedonian  town  of  Naukratis,  on  the  Canopic 
Nile,  the  privileges  of  a  true  Greek  'polls.  But 
the  idea  was  abandoned  by  their  successors, 
and  the  Greek  infusion  had  no  very  great  effect 
on  the  seven  millions  who  inhabited  the  Egypt 
of  Ptolemaic  days.  After  a  time  the  Greek 
settlers  began  to  intermarry  with  the  native 
women,  and  then,  as  usual,  the  children  tended 
to  assimilate  themselves  with  their  mothers' 
race,  while  retaining  their  Greek  names  and  cer- 
tain outward  appearances  of  their  paternal 
descent.* 

There  was,  therefore,  no  great  cleavage  between 
a  Greek  or  Macedonian  Egypt  and  the  Egypt  of 
the  natives,  for  the  reason  that  the  native  element 
was  both  more  absorbent  and  immensely  larger 
than  the  Greek.  But  there  was  a  distinct 
cleavage  between  the  provinces  and  the  capital. 
Alexandria,  beginning  its  life  as  a  city  mainly 
Macedonian  Greek,  with  a  native  Egyptian 
population   quartered  in   Rhakotis,   its   western 

*  Even  these  went  in  time.  Dr.  Mahaffy  speaks  of  a 
general  fusion  of  the  two  races  by  the  time  of  Ptolemy  IX, 
in  whose  reign  the  Greek  settlers  were  beginning  to  be  known 
by  their  native  names  ("  Empire  of  the  Ptolemies,"  pp.  396-9  ; 
"  History  of  Egypt,"  pp.  199  ff.). 

no 


CLEOPATRA'S    KINGDOM 

half,  and  in  the  island  suburb  of  Pharos,  and  a 
colony  of  Jews  expressly  introduced  by  Alexander 
the  Great,  grew  with  the  passage  of  time  at  once 
more  cosmopolitan  and  more  individual  in  its 
character.  The  Jewish  community,  as  every- 
where else  in  the  world,  maintained  its  separate 
existence,  while  steadily  increasing  in  numbers 
through  immigration.  The  native  element,  which 
was  probably  about  a  third  of  the  total  free 
population  of  over  three  hundred  thousand 
under  the  later  Lagidae,  had  from  the  foundation 
of  Alexandria  tended  to  blend  itself  with  the 
larger  Greek  element,  partly  no  doubt  on  account 
of  the  absence  of  special  rights  for  Egyptians 
in  the  city ;  whereas  the  Greeks  had  certain 
exemptions  from  taxation,  including  perhaps 
the  poll-tax  which  extended  over  the  provinces, 
and  the  Jews  had,  according  to  Josephus,  equal 
rights  with  the  Greeks.  It  was  an  advantage 
for  the  Egyptians  living  in  Alexandria  to  become 
outwardly  Hellenised,  to  speak  Greek  as  well 
as  their  own  tongue — all  laws,  decrees,  etc., 
being  issued  in  both  languages — and  to  inter- 
marry with  the  descendants  of  the  Greek  settlers. 
But  while  sinking  their  separate  nationality  in 
Alexandria,  the  native  inhabitants  (and  again 
particularly  the  women)  had  the  satisfaction  of 
profoundly  affecting  the  ultimate  character  of 
the  citizens. 
The  great  mass  of  the  population  early  began 
III 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

to  lose  its  Macedonian  colour,  subjected  not  only 
to  this  influence  of  the  Greek-speaking  or  rather 
bilingual  Egyptians  living  in  its  midst,  but  also 
to  that  of  the  countless  mercenaries  whom  the 
Ptolemies  enrolled  in  their  armies  from  all  parts 
of  Greece,  from  Syria,  Gaul,  and  Italy,  from  any- 
where in  fact  where  men  were  to  be  found  who 
liked  the  life  of  a  hired  soldier  in  a  rich  country. 
Added  to  these  strains  in  the  population  was  the 
blood  introduced  by  the  settlers  attracted  by 
business  to  the  leading  commercial  city  of  the 
world — Palestinian  Jews,  Arabs,  Phoenicians, 
Levantines  of  all  sorts,  Persians,  and  doubtless 
a  few  Indians  also.  For  the  connection  between 
Hindustan  and  Alexandria  had  never  been  broken 
of^  since  the  days  when  the  second  Ptolemy  sent 
his  ambassador  to  the  court  of  Bindusara,  King 
of  Magadha,  and  Bindusara's  great  son  Asoka 
in  turn  despatched  his  Buddhist  missionaries 
westward,  to  have  a  profound  effect,  it  is  sus- 
pected, on  the  growth  of  monastic  life  first  in 
Egypt  and  later,  through  Egypt,  in  European 
lands. 

The  type  which  evolved  itself  out  of  these 
many  elements  was  very  distinct  from  either  the 
Greek  or  the  Egyptian.  The  Alexandrians  were 
a  people  keen  in  the  pursuit  of  wealth,  yet  in- 
tensely pleasure-loving  ;  loose  in  their  morals  ; 
quick-witted  and  humorous,  with  a  somewhat 
bitter   humour,   yet   deeply   superstitious ;     ex- 

112 


CLEOPATRA'S    KINGDOM 

citable,  turbulent,  and  easily  moved  to  cruel 
violence.  The  story  told  by  Diodorus  Siculus, 
who  visited  Egypt  not  long  before  Cleopatra's 
reign  began,  has  often  been  referred  to  by  modern 
writers,  but  will  perhaps  bear  repetition.  Speak- 
ing of  the  Egyptian  attitude  of  mind  toward 
animals,  Diodorus  says  : 

"  Such  is  the  religious  veneration  impressed 
upon  the  hearts  of  men  toward  these  creatures, 
and  so  obstinately  is  every  one  bent  to  adore 
and  worship  them,  that  even  at  the  time  when 
the  Romans  were  about  making  a  league  with 
Ptolemy,  and  all  the  people  made  it  their  great 
business  to  caress  and  show  all  civility  and 
kindness  imaginable  to  them  that  came  out  of 
Italy,  and  through  fear  strove  all  they  could 
that  no  occasion  might  in  the  least  be  given  to 
disoblige  them  or  be  the  cause  of  a  war  ;  yet  it 
so  happened  that  upon  a  cat  being  killed  by  a 
Roman,  the  people  in  a  tumult  ran  to  his  lodging, 
and  neither  the  princes  sent  by  the  king  to  dissuade 
them  nor  the  fear  of  the  Romans  could  deliver 
the  person  from  the  rage  of  the  people,  though 
he  did  it  against  his  will.  And  this  I  relate  not 
by  hearsay  but  was  myself  an  eyewitness  of  it 
at  the  time  of  my  travels  in  Egypt."* 

*  Diodorus  Siculus,  I.  6,  the  translation  used  being  that  of 
G.  Booth.  Another  interesting  testimony  to  the  excitability 
of  the  Alexandrians  is  furnished  by  Dion  Chrysostom,  one 
hundred  years  later  than  Diodorus.  I  am  indebted  for  the 
quotation  to  Dr.  Mahaflfy's  "  Silver  Age  of  the  Greek  World," 

113 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

It  speaks  well  for  the  foresight  of  Alexander,  the 
founder,  and  of  Ptolemy  Soter,  the  first  Lagid 
ruler  of  Alexandria,  that  they  refrained  from 
granting  to  the  city  the  privileges  of  a  Greek 
polls.  The  difficulty  of  handling  the  Alexandrian 
populace  was  amply  experienced  by  the  later 
kings,  and  it  is  impossible  to  imagine  how  any 
of  them  could  have  succeeded  in  their  task, 
had  their  subjects  in  the  capital  possessed  the 
autonomous  powers  which  were  safely  left  to 
Naukratis  and  granted  to  Ptolemais.  The  old 
Macedonian  right  of  general  assembly,  of  which 
traces  are  to  be  seen  in  Alexandrian  history 
under  the  Ptolemies,  clearly  gave  the  sovereigns 
more  trouble,  in  the  sphere  of  municipal  politics, 
than  they  desired. f 

The  home  of  this  composite  and  turbulent 
population  was  decidedly  the  most  imposing  city 
of  the  ancient  world,  and  well  adapted  to  become 


pp.  286-7.  According  to  Dion,  "  the  whole  town  lived  for 
excitement,  and  when  the  manifestation  of  Apis  took 
place,  all  Alexandria  went  fairly  mad  with  concerts  and 
horseraces.  When  doing  their  ordinary  work  they  were 
apparently  sane,  but  the  instant  they  entered  the  theatre 
or  the  racecourse  they  appeared  as  if  possessed  by  some 
intoxicating  drug,  so  that  they  no  longer  knew  nor  cared 
what  they  said  or  did.  And  this  was  the  case  even  with 
women  and  children,  so  that  when  the  show  was  over  and  the 
first  madness  past,  all  the  streets  and  byeways  were  seething 
with  excitement  for  days,  like  the  swell  after  a  storm." 

•j"  The  precise  political  rights  of  the  Alexandrians  need  not 
detain  us  here.  They  are  exhaustively  discussed  by  M. 
Bouch6-Leclercq  in  his  "  Histoire  des  Lagides,"  III.  chap.  22. 

114 


CLEOPATRA'S    KINGDOM 

that  everlasting  inspiration  to  its  inhabitants- 
which  Athens,  according  to  Perikles,  was  to  hers  ; 
partly  owing  to  the  magnificence  of  its  archi- 
tecture, half  Greek,  half  Egyptian,  and  partly 
to  the  symmetrical  planning  which  marks  some 
modem  towns  in  Europe  and  America,  but  has 
never  been  common  either  in  the  past  or  the 
present.  Although  it  does  not  appear  that 
Alexander  the  Great  chose  an  entirely  virgin 
site,  rather  extending  Alexandria  north-eastward 
along  the  coast  from  an  old  Egyptian  township 
or  collection  of  villages  known  as  Raqertit  (the 
Greek  Rhakotis),  nevertheless  he  laid  out  his 
name-city  in  a  very  bold  manner.  Diodorus 
speaks  of  its  outline  being  that  of  a  Macedonian 
military  cloak.  Such  conceits  pleased  the  ancient 
mind.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  shape  of  Alexandria 
was  roughly  oblong,  as  dictated  by  the  lie  of  the 
land  whereon  it  was  built.  Situated  on  a  strip 
of  shore  running  from  north-east  to  south-west 
between  the  Mediterranean  Sea  and  the  fresh- 
water Lake  Mareotis,  the  city  was  about  three 
miles  long  by  one  mile  and  a  half  at  its  greatest 
breadth.  Through  its  centre  there  cut  the 
majestic  avenue  known  as  the  Meson  Pedion 
or  Canopic  Way,  as  long  as  the  city  itself,*  one 
hundred    feet   wide,    and    flanked   with   marble 

*  Gorgo,  one  of  the  garrulous  women  in  the  fifteenth  Idyli 
of  Theocritus,  complains  bitterly  of  the  length  of  Alex- 
andria's streets. 

115 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

colonnades  on  either  side.  The  other  main 
streets  all  crossed  this  avenue  at  right-angles, 
chief  amongst  them  being  that  which  led  from 
the  Moon  gate,  near  the  Royal  Harbour  and 
Palace,  to  the  Sun  gate,  close  to  the  junction  of 
the  stream  from  Mareotis  to  the  sea  and  the  canal 
leading  to  that  branch  of  the  Nile  on  which  stood 
the  rich  and  sacred  city  of  Canopus.  Like  the 
Canopic  Way,  this  shorter  street  was  also  one 
hundred  feet  wide  and  colonnaded  on  both  sides. 
Toward  the  western  end  of  the  city  another  of 
these  cross-streets  connected  with  the  Heptasta- 
dion,  the  mole  of  which  we  have  spoken  in  Chapter 
IV,  which  gave  access  to  the  island  of  Pharos. 
At  the  eastern  extremity  of  this  island  stood  the 
famous  octagonal  lighthouse  of  white  marble, 
three  hundred  and  sixty-five  feet  high,  erected 
by  Ptolemy  Philadelphos  in  283  B.C.  and  not 
finally  destroyed  until  an  earthquake  threw 
it  down  at  the  beginning  of  the  Thirteenth  Century 
A.D.  It  is  said  that  on  a  calm  and  bright  day  a 
few  remains  of  this  tower  can  even  now  be  seen 
under  the  water  in  Alexandria  harbour. 

On  the  right  of  the  lighthouse  and  the  Hepta- 
stadion  lay  the  Great  Harbour,  with  its  entrance 
narrowed  by  the  reefs  that  ran  out  toward  Pharos 
from  the  promontory  on  which  stood  the  Royal 
Palace  and  the  Temple  of  Isis  Lochias.  On  the 
left  was  the  more  exposed  harbour  of  Eunostos, 
with  its  small  inner  basin  called  the  Kibotos  or 

116 


CLEOPATRA'S    KINGDOM 

"  coffer,"  into  which  discharged  the  stream  from 
the  lake.  The  two  breaks  in  the  Heptastadion 
afforded  a  passage  between  the  Eunostos  and 
Great  Harbours,  the  Old  and  New  Ports.  The 
whole  harbour-frontage,  from  the  Palace  to  the 
Kibotos,  was  occupied  by  wharves  and  docks, 
naval  and  commercial,  by  warehouses,  and  by 
great  public  buildings  such  as  the  Emporion  or 
Exchange.  In  the  midst  stood  the  temple  of 
Poseidon,  all  of  marble,  with  its  stately  Greek 
pediment  facing  the  harbour  mouth  a  mile 
away. 

To  return  to  the  city  proper,  Alexandria  was 
divided  into  two  main  quarters,  the  Brucheion 
and  Rhakotis.  The  former,  the  Royal  City,  as 
distinct  from  the  rest  as  the  Vatican  from  non- 
papal  Rome,  the  Kremlin  from  Moscow,  or  the 
Forbidden  City  from  Peking,  was  what  gave 
Alexandria  its  reputation  as  one  of  the  wonders 
of  the  world.  The  pride  of  all  the  Ptolemies  in 
succession,  of  whom  not  even  the  worst  failed  to 
add  something  to  its  beauties,  a  temple,  a  man- 
sion, a  garden,  an  obelisk,  or  a  statue,  it  was  in 
Cleopatra's  day  at  the  height  of  its  splendour. 
"  We  are  vanquished,  mine  eyes,"  wrote  Achilles 
Tatius,  the  erotic  novelist,  five  centuries  later ; 
and  he  saw  Alexandria  when  many  of  the  Ptole- 
maic buildings  had  fallen  in  ruins,  if  the  Romans 
had  added  others  to  the  sum.  The  most  im- 
posing sight  must  have  been  the  Royal  Palace, 
117 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

about  which  unhappily  we  know  little*  except 
that  it  occupied  the  most  northerly  point  of  the 
Brucheion,  jutting  out  into  the  sea  on  Cape 
Lochias.  To  its  right  stood  the  Temple  of  Isis, 
to  its  left  lay  the  Royal  Harbour,  which  Caesar 
had  occupied  on  his  arrival,  and  the  Arsenal. 
'South  of  it  came  the  Theatre,  which  had  been 
the  Roman  headquarters  during  the  siege. 
South-east,  the  Gymnasium,  with  its  great  park, 
its  porticoes  and  buildings,  in  which  so  many 
•stirring  scenes  in  the  history  of  the  Lagidae  had 
been  witnessed  and  in  which  Cleopatra,  Antony, 
and  Octavian  were  all  to  play  memorable  parts. 
•South-west,  the  world-famous  Library,  with  its 
four  hundred  thousand  (or,  according  to  other 
-accounts,  seven  hundred  thousand)  books  ;  the 
Sema  or  Mausoleum  of  Alexander,  with  the  hero's 
body  in  a  coffin  originally  golden,  but  in  late 
Ptolemaic  days  of  glass,  and  with  its  side-chapels 
'devoted  to  the  cult  of  the  deceased  Ptolemies 
themselves  ;  and  the  Museum,  the  "  Cage  of  the 
Muses,"  a  great  University,  combined  with  a 
monastery  and  a  home  for  literary  and  scientific 
men,  where  lived,  dined,  lectured,  philosophised 

*  Theocritus' s  Syracusan  women  speak  ecstatically  of  its 
magnificence,  or  rather  of  the  magnificence  of  the  mounting 
of  the  Masque  of  Adonis  within  its  walls,  in  the  before- 
mentioned  Idyll  XV.  (11.  78  flf.).  There  is  little  hope  of 
•recovering  Ptolemaic  Alexandria  by  excavation,  it  is  said, 
as  a  good  part  of  the  Brucheion  at  least  is  now  under  the 
-waters  of  the  harbour.  Digging  down  to  the  site  of  the 
Serapeum  may  lead  to  some  results. 

118 


CLEOPATRA'S    KINGDOM 

and  wrote,  all  at  the  public  expense,  such  men  as 
Theocritus,  Callimachus,  Herondas,  Apollonius, 
Lycophron,  Aratus,  and  Archimedes.  Around 
these  vast  buildings  lay  the  temples  of  the  gods, 
the  houses  of  the  rich,  and  the  gardens,  public  and 
private,  which  the  climate  of  Egypt  kept  beautiful 
all  the  year  round  with  a  profusion  of  flowers, 
shrubs,  and  trees,  indigenous  and  imported. 

Under  the  shelter  of  the  Brucheion  was  the 
Jewish  quarter  with  its  own  synagogues  and  halls, 
wherein  its  ethnarch,  assisted  by  a  Sanhedrin, 
administered  justice  among  the  members  of  an  ex- 
clusive community,  to  whom  the  Lagidae,  with  the 
exceptions  of  the  fourth  and  ninth  Ptolemies  and 
of  Cleopatra  herself,  showed  marked  favour. 

In  the  south-western  section  of  Alexandria, 
Rhakotis,  amid  the  houses  of  the  poorer  Alex- 
andrians, the  outstanding  features  were  the 
Serapeion,  better  known  under  its  Latinised  name 
of  Serapeum,  and  the  Paneion  ;  and  some  of  the 
authorities  also  place  the  Stadium  in  this  part  of 
the  city.  The  Serapeum  was  the  principal  temple 
of  Serapis,  now  already  the  patron  god  of  Alex- 
andria and  of  Egypt,  and  soon  about  to  extend 
his  conquests.  Lying  south  of  the  Canopic  Way 
and  west  of  the  avenue  which  met  the  Hepta- 
stadion,  this  temple  dominated  all  around  it 
with  its  altitude  of  over  one  hundred  feet  and  its 
vast  mass  of  Syenitic  red  granite,  led  up  to  by  a 
spiral  stairway  of  a  hundred  steps.     Attached  to 

119 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

it  was  a  library  (an  overflow  from  the  great 
Library  in  the  Brucheion),  which  suffered 
destruction  at  the  hands  of  the  Christian  bishop 
Theophilus  in  the  Fourth  Century  a.d.,  some  two 
hundred  and  sixty  years  before  the  Moham- 
medans, by  burning  the  main  building,  finally 
wiped  out  all  traces  of  the  literary  zeal  of  Alex- 
andria. The  Paneion,  north  of  the  Canopic  Way, 
was  an  artificially  constructed  hill,  still  higher 
than  the  Serapeum  and  commanding  a  view  all 
over  the  native  city,  over  the  embalmers'  quarter 
and  the  Egyptian  necropolis  outside  the  western 
gate,  and  over  the  harbour  of  Eunostos  and  the 
open  sea  beyond. 

Throughout  the  whole  of  this  wonderful  city, 
nothing  was  more  remarkable  than  the  profusion 
of  temples,  both  the  graceful  Greek  type  with 
its  dazzling  marble  front  and  columns  and  the 
heavier  Egyptian  building  of  red  or  grey  granite, 
walled  in  all  round  from  profane  eyes.  If  the 
Alexandrians  were  superstitious,  as  we  have 
said,  they  had  at  least  the  excuse  that  their  rulers 
encouraged  them  by  the  erection  of  so  many 
temples  to  the  gods  of  Greece  and  of  Egypt, 
separately,  or  identified.  Moreover,  the  advent 
of  the  Macedonians  tended  to  deform  the  native 
religion,  already  a  blend  of  a  number  of  beliefs. 
To  the  early  Greek  travellers  in  the  land  Egypt 
had  appeared  a  welter  of  strange  and  bestial  gods. 
They  saw  all  around  them  the  rams  of  Amon  and 

I20 


CLEOPATRA'S   KINGDOM 

Khnumu,  the  bulls  of  Ra,  Apis,  and  Mentu, 
Hathor's  cow,  the  goat  of  Osiris,  the  hawk  of 
Horus,  the  ibis  and  the  baboon  of  Thoth,  the 
jackal  of  Anubis,  the  lioness  or  cat  of  Bastit 
(Pasht),  Sebek's  crocodile,  and,  even  stranger, 
the  divine  hippopotamus,  vulture,  cobra,  scarab- 
beetle,  and  frog.  Failing,  not  unnaturally,  to 
appreciate  the  symbolism  of  so  puzzling  a  religion 
and  refused  any  help  by  the  priests,  they  sought 
their  explanations  from  the  common  folk,  who 
knew  as  little  as  themselves  and  accepted  the 
whole  crowd  of  animals  as  fetishes,  while  they 
revelled  in  magic  and  in  the  excitement  with 
which  the  great  festivals  provided  them.  When 
Macedonian  rule  was  established  over  Egypt,  the 
religion  had  decayed  greatly  since  the  time  of 
Herodotus,  the  priestly  colleges  had  grown  less 
learned,  and  the  mob  more  addicted  to  the  mere 
outward  cult  of  the  old  divinities.  The  Ptolemies, 
not  comprehending  the  native  worship,  en- 
deavoured to  adapt  it  to  their  political  purposes 
by  continuing  the  process,  which  Alexander  had 
begun,  of  identifying  the  Egyptian  gods  with  the 
inhabitants  of  Olympus.  The  task  was  hard  and 
the  result  bewildering,*  and  when  the  Egyptian 

*  Especially  as  the  Egyptian  deities  ran  into  one  another 
in  so  extraordinarj^  a  way.  Some  of  the  identifications  most 
commonly  met  with  are  those  of  Amon  with  Zeus,  Satis 
with  Hera,  Osiris  (and  also  Horus)  with  Dionysos,  Isis  with 
Demeter,  Hathor  with  Aphrodite,  Ptah  with  Hephaistos, 
Thoth  (and  Anubis)  with  Hermes,  Min  with  Pan,  Bcs  with 
Herakles. 

121 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

and  Greek  subjects  of  the  Lagidae  came  to  accept 
this  "  bastard  pantheon  "  their  worship  of  it  was 
of  no  elevated  character.  For  so  strange  a 
collection  of  deities  only  superstition  could  be  an 
adequate  homage. 

Seeing  the  need  of  some  more  worthy  religious 
bond  between  the  two  great  peoples  of  his  Empire, 
the  statesmanlike  founder  of  the  royal  dynasty 
took  the  bold  step  of  setting  up  a  new  god.  He 
did  not  depart  entirely  from  the  system  of 
identification.  He  took  the  Greek  Zeus  in  his 
aspect  of  Hades,  the  god  of  the  dead  (fetching, 
according  to  the  story,  a  statue  from  a  famous 
temple  at  Sinope  on  the  shores  of  the  Black  Sea), 
and  introduced  him  to  Egypt  as  identical  with 
an  already  existing  god  from  Memphis,  called 
Serapis  or  Sarapis  ;  that  is,  Osir-Hapi  or  Osor- 
Apis,  an  amalgamation  of  Osiris  and  the  Apis 
bull,  deified  after  his  death,  and  become  an 
incarnation  of  Ptah.  This  strange  compound 
deity  did  credit  to  the  statecraft  of  Ptolemy 
Soter.  With  the  royal  support,  his  worship 
made  its  way  rapidly  among  Egyptians  and 
Greeks  alike.  With  his  most  famous  temples  at 
Alexandria  and  Canopus,  Serapis  grew  to  be  the 
national  god  of  Egypt.  Under  the  Ptolemies  he 
penetrated  to  Greece,  after  Cleopatra's  fall  to 
Rome,  where  at  the  beginning  of  the  Third 
Century  a.d.  he  had  a  temple  on  the  Quirinal ; 
and  in  the  Capitoline  Museum  at  Rome  to-day 

122 


CLEOPATRA'S    KINGDOM 

there  is  an  altar  with  an  inscription  belonging  to 
the  end  of  that  century,  dedicating  it  to  Jupiter 
Optimus  Maximus  Sol  Serapis.  But  for  the 
growth  of  Christianity,  Serapis  might  even  have 
spread  his  conquests  further  and  become  the  god 
of  a  continent,  a  fortune  which  actually  befell 
the  great  female  divinity  of  Egypt,  Isis*. 

*  See  Flinders  Petrie,  "  Religion  of  Ancient  Egypt,"  p.  44. 
Speaking  of  the  blending  of  the  Apis  bull  with  Osiris,  Pro- 
fessor Flinders  Petrie  says  (p.  23)  :  "  This  appears  to  have 
originated  the  great  Ptolemaic  god  Serapis,  as  certainly 
the  mausoleum  of  the  bulls  was  the  Serapeum  of  the  Greeks." 


123 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE   SHADOW   OF   ROME 

Cleopatra,  on  her  return  to  Egypt  in  44,  found 
Alexandria  still  securely  hers,  thanks  to  the 
legions  which  Julius  Caesar  had  left  with  her 
three  years  before,  and  the  rest  of  the  country 
quiet  in  the  hands  of  the  local  officials.  Pro- 
vincial Egypt  was  accustomed  to  progress  quite 
comfortably  without  interference  from  the 
capital,  provided  that  no  famine  came  to  disturb 
the  regularity  of  life  among  the  peasantry.  Soon 
after  the  queen's  home-coming,  however,  trouble 
arose  both  in  the  capital  and  in  the  country. 
Egypt  was  visited  by  famine,  owing  to  an 
unusually  small  rise  of  the  Nile  ;  and  at  Alex- 
andria the  Roman  garrison  mutinied.  With 
regard  to  the  latter  event,  we  find  Cicero  writing 
to  Atticus  from  Puteoli  in  the  October  of  44 
mentioning  that  he  has  heard  that  the  Alex- 
andrian legions  are  up  in  arms,  and  that  while 
awaiting  the  arrival  of  Cassius  in  Syria  they  have 
sent  for  Bassus. 

After  Caesar's  death  and  her  flight  from  Italy, 
Cleopatra  can  have  desired  nothing  so  much  as 

124 


THE   SHADOW   OF    ROME 

to  be  allowed  to  manage  the  affairs  of  her  king- 
dom without  interference  from  Rome.  But^ 
there  were  two  reasons  why  this  could  not  be. 
In  the  first  place  the  legions  at  Alexandria  were 
only  regarded  by  the  Romans  as  a  loan  to  her, 
and  in  the  second  Egypt  was  far  too  rich  a 
country  not  to  be  called  upon  to  furnish  aid  to 
the  contending  parties  in  the  Roman  Empire. 
Civil  war  was  on  the  point  of  breaking  out  again. 
Three  of  Caesar's  murderers,  Cassius  and  the 
cousins  Marcus  and  Decimus  Brutus,  were  deter- 
mined to  keep  the  provinces  which  the  dead  man 
had  assigned  to  them,*  while  the  Caesarians  were 
equally  determined  to  take  the  governorships  out 
of  their  hands.  Decimus  Brutus  was  already  in 
Cisalpine  Gaul  in  the  spring  of  44,  but  Cassius 
and  Marcus  Brutus  found  Dolabella  and  Antony 
bent  on  depriving  them  of  Syria  and  Macedonia. 
The  province  of  Syria  would  carry  with  it  the 
right  of  conducting  the  war  against  the  Parthians, 
and  was  therefore  highly  desirable  to  any 
ambitious  man,  anxious  to  command  a  large 
army.  In  the  Parthian  expedition  the  Alex- 
andricin  legions  might  be  expected  to  take  part. 


♦  This  is  the  ordinary  view,  based  on  Appian  and  supported 
apparently  by  other  ancient  historians.  But  Professor 
Ferrero,  following  Schwarz,  holds  that  Caesar  had  assigned 
Macedonia  to  Antony  and  Syria  to  Dolabella,  leaving  Marcus 
Brutus  and  Cassius  without  provinces  ("  Greatness  and 
Decline  of  Rome,"  III.  Appendix  B).  With  regard  to 
Decimus  Brutus  there  is  no  dispute. 

125 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

which  accounted  for  their  excitement  about  the 
arrival  of  Cassius  in  the  East. 

The  Bassus  mentioned  by  Cicero  was  an  ex- 
Pompeian,  who  had  turned  bandit  in  Syria  and 
maintained  himself  successfully  against  Caesar's 
officers.  That  Caesar's  former  legions  should 
have  called  him  to  them  is  an  indication  of  the 
curiously  mixed  state  of  Roman  political  affairs 
at  this  time.  A  still  more  striking  example  of 
this  is  furnished  by  the  man  who  disputed  with 
Cassius  the  right  to  the  governorship  of  Syria, 
for  immediately  after  the  Dictator's  murder  he 
gave  out  that  he  had  been  aware  of  the  conspiracy 
and  approved  of  its  outcome.  Publius  Cornelius 
Dolabella  was  a  young  man  of  the  worst  moral 
character  (although  Cicero,  whose  son-in-law  he 
had  been  for  a  few  years,  now  attempted  to 
defend  it),  a  bankrupt  with  the  rest  of  his  class, 
and  an  utterly  unscrupulous  politician  of  the 
demagogic  order.  Caesar,  however,  who  so  often 
took  up  these  young  men  of  ruined  character,  had 
not  only  given  him  work  in  the  African  and 
Spanish  campaigns,  but  had  actually  nominated 
him,  though  he  was  only  twenty-five  years  of 
age,  to  be  consul  in  the  second  half  of  44,  taking 
his  own  place  when  he  should  go  on  the  Parthian 
expedition.  Dolabella  had  forcibly  assumed  the 
consulship  immediately  after  Caesar's  murder, 
and  after  a  period  of  coquetting  with  the  con- 
spirators, whom  he  endeavoured  to  reassure  by 

126 


THE    SHADOW    OF    ROME 

numerous  acts  of  violence  against  the  Caesarians, 
had  at  last  joined  forces  with  Antony,  previously 
his  enemy  owing  to  an  intrigue  between  Dolabella 
and  Antony's  cousin  and  second  wife,  Antonia. 
Now,  without  waiting  for  his  term  of  office  as 
consul  to  expire,  he  set  out  for  S5a"ia  to  forestall 
Cassius,  at  present  engaged  with  Marcus  Brutus 
in  collecting  troops  and  funds  to  enable  them  to 
enter  their  provinces  with  safety.  On  his  way  east 
Dolabella  sent  his  friend  Allienus  to  Alexandria 
to  fetch  the  legions  there  to  join  his  standard. 

Cleopatra  was  placed  in  a  very  difficult  position. 
That  she  must  part  with  her  legions  was  evident. 
But  to  whom  was  she  to  surrender  them  ?  She 
dare  not  be  on  the  losing  side,  and  it  was  at 
present  impossible  to  tell  which  side  would  win 
or,  indeed,  who  would  be  on  the  two  sides.  We 
do  not  know  how  much  she  learnt  about  Roman 
politics  during  her  visit  to  Italy  ;  nor  would  a 
knowledge  of  the  politics  before  Caesar's  death 
have  helped  her  to  a  clear  view  about  the  parties 
after  it.  Cassius,  of  course,  was  an  anti- 
Caesarian,  who,  she  might  guess,  would  have  the 
support  of  the  remnants  of  the  old  Pompeian 
and  Senatorial  section  at  Rome.  Dolabella  was 
now  once  again  a  pronounced  Caesarian  and 
could  claim  to  be  backed  by  Antony.  But  news 
of  the  ambiguous  relations  between  Antony  and 
Julius  Caesar's  heir  Octavian  must  surely  have 
reached  Egypt. 

127 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

In  the  circumstances  Cleopatra  seems  to  have 
allowed  herself  to  be  guided  by  her  inclinations. 
When  Cassius's  requisition  reached  her  she 
"  excused  herself  on  the  ground  that  Egypt  was 
at  that  time  suffering  from  famine  and  pesti- 
lence," says  Appian,  "  but  she  was  really  acting 
with  Dolabella  on  account  of  her  relations  with 
the  elder  Caesar."  Dion  makes  her  afterwards 
obtain  the  Roman  Government's  consent  to  her 
association  of  Caesarion  with  herself  on  the  throne 
of  Egypt  in  return  for  her  assistance  to  Dolabella. 
It  seems  quite  likely  that  she  hoped  for  such  a 
reward  at  the  same  time  that  she  ventured  to 
throw  in  her  lot  with  a  man  who  claimed  to 
represent  the  party  of  her  dead  lover  rather  than 
with  one  of  his  murderers. 

Allienus  was  therefore  allowed  to  leave  Alex- 
andria with  the  legions  of  the  garrison  ;  and,  in 
addition,  an  Egyptian  fleet  made  ready  to  sail 
for  the  Syrian  coast.  But  matters  did  not  turn 
out  as  Cleopatra  and  Dolabella  wished.  The 
latter,  when  he  reached  Asia  Minor  on  his  way 
to  Syria,  found  already  installed  as  governor  of 
the  Roman  province  of  Asia  Trebonius,  who  was 
one  of  the  so-called  t5a:annicides.  There  was 
an  apparently  amicable  interview  between  the 
two  men  at  Smyrna,  but  Dolabella  very  soon 
decided  to  throw  off  the  mask.  He  seized 
Trebonius  and  put  him  to  death,  the  first  of  the 
Dictator's  murderers  to  pay  the  penalty  for  his 

128 


THE   SHADOW    OF    ROME 

crime.  Then  in  the  spring  of  43,  hearing  that 
Cassius  had  arrived  in  CiUcia,  he  marched  against 
him.  Dolabella's  good  luck,  however,  was  at 
an  end.  The  wavering  Roman  Government  had 
already  declared  him  a  public  enemy  and  re- 
assigned Syria  to  Cassius.  The  latter  had 
succeeded  in  intercepting  Allienus  and  the 
Alexandrian  legions  in  Palestine  and  had  brought 
the  troops  over  to  his  own  side.  Moreover,  at 
the  same  time  that  he  had  sent  his  requisition  to 
Cleopatra  herself,  Cassius  had  demanded  assist- 
ance also  from  Serapion,  her  viceroy  in  Cyprus, 
which  we  find  now  again  definitely  acknowledged 
as  an  Egyptian  possession.  Serapion,  without 
waiting  to  consult  his  queen,  sent  what  ships  he 
had  to  Cassius,  being  no  doubt  afraid  to  refuse 
the  demand  of  a  Roman  provincial  governor. 
While  the  Cyprian  vessels  reached  Cassius,  the 
Egyptian  fleet  was  stopped  by  unfavourable 
winds  from  setting  out  to  Dolabella's  assistance. 
Everything  now  had  gone  against  the  young 
scoundrel.  Cassius  with  greatly  superior  forces 
drove  him  to  take  refuge  in  the  Syrian  coast  town 
of  Laodicea,  where  he  committed  suicide  in  July, 
leaving  his  army  to  join  the  enemy. 

Although  Dolabella  is  not  a  man  of  great  im- 
portance in  himself,  he  is  one  of  those  who,  like 
Aulus  Gabinius,  Caelius  Rufus,  and  Quintus 
Dellius,  should  be  kept  in  mind  when  we  consider 
the  savage  strictures  of  the  Latin  writers  upon 

129  5 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

the  shameless  moraHty  and  general  worthlessness 
of  the  Egyptians  and  other  non-Romans. 

The  catastrophe  at  Laodicea  must  temporarily 
have  caused  Cleopatra  to  fancy  that  she  had 
backed  the  wrong  horse  and  would  be  called 
upon  to  pay  the  usual  penalty  for  doing  so. 
Cassius  after  his  victory  was  in  tremendous  force 
in  Syria,  and  determined  to  secure  Egypt  for  the 
Republican  cause.  He  also  suspected  Cleopatra 
of  designing  to  send  the  Egyptian  fleet,  which  had 
been  unable  to  help  Dolabella,  to  join  Antony 
and  Octavian,  who  had  at  last  become  reconciled 
and  with  Lepidus  had  formed  another  trium- 
virate in  imitation  of  that  of  Caesar,  Pompey,  and 
Crassus.  The  condition  of  Egypt,  "  wasted  by 
famine  and  having  now  no  considerable  foreign 
troops,"  as  Appian  says,  invited  attack.  But  at 
the  moment  when  Cassius  was  about  to  invade 
the  country  he  received  a  message  from  Marcus 
Brutus  which  checked  him.  Brutus  had  at  first 
been  as  successful  in  Macedonia  as  Cassius  had 
been  in  Syria,  and  had  captured  Caius  Antonius, 
who  had  been  conducting  the  struggle  against  him 
on  behalf  of  his  celebrated  brother.  On  the 
formation  of  the  Second  Triumvirate,  followed 
by  a  fierce  proscription  of  the  enemies  of  the 
three  parties  to  it,  Brutus  put  Caius  Antonius  to 
death — in  revenge  for  the  death  of  Cicero,  it  was 
said.  Then,  in  preparation  for  the  threatened 
invasion  of  Greece  by  Antony  and  Octavian,  he 

130 


THE   SHADOW   OF   ROME 

crossed  to  Asia  Minor  and  sent  word  to  Cassius 
that  their  object  must  be  "  not  to  get  dominion 
but  to  deliver  their  country."*  On  this  Cassius 
abandoned  his  designs  on  Egypt  and  marched  to 
join  Brutus  at  Smyrna. 

It  was  now  the  end  of  43.  Cleopatra  was 
relieved  of  the  apprehension  of  an  immediate 
invasion,  but  could  not  feel  safe  as  long  as  the 
war  continued.  Being  already  committed  against 
the  party  of  Cassius — although,  as  we  have  seen, 
the  Alexandrian  legions  had  gone  over  to  him 
and  the  Egyptian  warships  had  failed  to  reach 
Dolabella — she  made  an  attempt  to  put  herself 
on  good  terms  with  the  Triumvirs.  She  got 
together  again  a  large  fleet  and  started  with  it 
herself  from  Alexandria.  It  has  been  suggested 
that  she  did  not  consider  herself  very  secure  in 
her  capital  now  that  the  Roman  legions  were 
gone.  It  seems  rather  doubtful,  however, 
whether  her  effort  to  join  the  Caesarians  was  more 
than  half-hearted.  Antony  appeared  to  doubt 
her  sincerity  when  he  summoned  her  to  Tarsus. 
Her  excuse  then,  as  reported  by  Appian,  was 
that  "  she  had  set  sail  personally  for  the  Adriatic 
with  a  fleet,  defying  Cassius  and  Murcus,  who  was 
lying  in  wait  for  her  ;  but  a  tempest  had  wrecked 
her  fleet  and  prostrated  her  with  sickness,  so  that 
she  was  unable  to  put  to  sea  again  until  the 
victory   [of  Philippi]   had   already  been  won." 

*  Plutarch,  "  Brutus,"  28. 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

This  Murcus  of  whom  she  spoke  was  Cassius's 
admiral,  who  with  sixty  ships  had  been  set  to 
watch  at  Taenarum  (Cape  Matapan)  lest  the 
Egyptian  fleet  should  attempt  to  cross  to  join 
th5  forces  of  the  Triumvirs.  It  certainly  looks 
as  if  Cleopatra's  defiance  of  him  did  not  go 
very  far. 

Consequently  the  autumn  of  42  arrived  and 
the  battle  of  Philippi  was  fought  without  the 
queen  having  definitely  ranged  herself  on  the  side 
of  the  Triumvirs.  Thereby  Egypt  was  spared  an 
expense  which  she  could  ill  afford  in  a  time  of 
shortage  of  the  Nile's  rising,  of  famine,  and  of 
disease  ;  but  also  there  was  a  reckoning  to  pay 
with  the  victors,  to  which  it  was  impossible  to 
look  forward  with  easy  feelings. 

Antony  and  Octavian  had  promised  their 
troops  five  thousand  denarii  (;^2Go)  apiece  as  a 
reward  for  their  exertions  at  Philippi.  Octavian 
now  went  back  to  Rome  entrusted  with  the  duty 
of  raising  money  in  the  West,  while  Antony  took 
charge  of  the  East.  Cassius  and  Brutus  had 
already  made  a  heavy  demand  on  the  cities  of 
Asia  Minor,  but  Antony  on  his  arrival  out- 
stripped the  Republican  extortioners.  The 
unfortunate  Asiatic  Greeks  endeavoured  to 
appease  him  by  the  reception  which  they  gave 
him,  taking  heart  from  the  way  in  which  he  had 
behaved  in  Greece  itself  on  his  way  from  Philippi 
to  Asia.     Plutarch  describes  him  there  as  listen- 

132 


THE    SHADOW   OF    ROME 

ing  to  learned  discourses,  attending  the  games  and 
religious  ceremonies,  and  rejoicing  in  being  called 
Philhellene,  and,  still  more,  Philathenian.  To 
Athens,  at  whose  university  he  placed  his  eldest 
son,  he  was  very  generous,  presenting  her  with 
Aegina  and  four  other  islands  in  the  Aegean 
which  in  earlier  days  had  been  part  of  her  mari- 
time empire. 

To  the  inhabitants  of  Asia  Minor  he  showed 
himself  in  another  aspect.  The  glamour  of 
Athens  did  not  extend  to  them.  Besides,  he 
must  have  money,  and  not  only  for  his  troops. 
Antony,  "  the  colossal  child,  capable  of  conquer- 
ing the  world,  incapable  of  resisting  a  pleasure," 
as  Renan  calls  him,*  had  not  become  a  different 
man  from  what  he  had  been  in  his  youth,  so 
venomously  described  by  Cicero.  After  the 
hard  campaign  of  Philippi,  where  he  had  fought 
so  well  and  had  thrown  Octavian  so  completely 
in  the  shade,  he  plunged  joyfully  into  the  sea  of 
excess  to  which  every  one  pointed  him  the  way. 
Kings  were  at  his  door,  says  Plutarch,  and  the 
wives  of  kings,  vying  with  one  another  in  beauty 
and  in  eagerness  to  win  him  with  their  favours. 
The  townspeople  seconded  the  efforts  of  the 
princes.  At  Ephesus  he  was  saluted  as  "  Diony- 
sos  the  Giver  of  Joy,  the  Beneficent,"  and 
escorted  by  women  dressed  as  Bacchantes  and 
men  and  boys  as  Satyrs  and  Pans  into  a  city  filled 

•  "  Histoire  du  Peuple  d'Isral-1,"  V.  206. 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

with  ivy-wreaths  and  thyrsi,  with  psalteries, 
pipes,  and  flutes.  It  cannot  be  wondered  at  that 
Antony  "  let  his  passions  lead  him  back  to  his 
regular  habits  of  life,  while  Anaxenor,  a  flute- 
player,  and  Xouthos,  a  piper,  and  Metrodoros,  a 
dancer,  and  a  rabble  of  other  such  Asiatics  crept 
in  and  managed  his  household  for  him."  Com- 
menting on  the  title  which  the  Ephesians  gave 
to  him,  Plutarch  remarks  that  Antony  might  be 
the  Joy-giver  and  the  Beneficent  to  some,  but 
to  the  majority  he  wore  another  aspect  of  the  god 
Dionysos,  that  of  the  Cruel  and  the  Savage, 
"  for  he  took  their  property  from  the  well-born 
and  gave  it  to  the  worthless  and  the  flatterers, 
and  some  got  the  substance  of  many  still  living 
by  asking  for  it  as  if  they  were  already  dead." 
His  demand  on  Asia  Minor  was  for  ten  years' 
taxation,  to  be  paid  in  two  years  ;  and  all  the 
rebatement  that  the  subservient  cities  could 
obtain  from  him  was  that  he  consented  to  accept 
nine  years'  taxes  instead  of  ten. 

A  brave  attempt  has  been  made  in  recent  years 
by  Professor  Guglielmo  Ferrero*  to  represent 
Antony  as  quite  a  different  man  from  what  the 
ancient  writers  make  him  out  to  be  ;  as  no  slave 
to  his  passions,  but  a  serious  and  strenuous  states- 
man, who  was  completely  justified  in  accepting  an 

*  "  La  Grandezza  e  Decadenza  di  Roma."  See  Volumes 
III.  and  IV.  of  the  English  translation,  "  The  Greatness  and 
Decline  of  Rome." 


THE    SHADOW   OF    ROME 

"  alliance  "  with  Cleopatra  because  the  resources 
of  Egypt  enabled  him  to  prosecute  that  war 
against  the  Parthians  which  he  took  up  as  a  legacy 
from  Julius  Caesar.  If  we  accept  Professor 
Ferrero's  picture,  we  are  bound  to  reject  a  great 
many,  indeed  most,  of  the  features  of  Antony's 
portrait  in  Plutarch,  who  is  responsible  through 
the  agency  of  his  adapter  Shakespeare  for  the 
world's  view  of  Antony.  But,  apart  from  the  reluc- 
tance which  we  must  feel  in  abandoning  Plutarch 
(who  of  all  ancient  historians  certainly  inspires 
his  readers  with  most  confidence  in  his  good  faith), 
we  may  be  pardoned  if  we  find  more  interesting 
than  convincing  the  Italian  professor's  concep- 
tions of  Antony  and  of  his  great  rival  Octavian, 
the  future  Augustus. 

Whatever  he  became  toward  the  end  of  his  days 
(and  there  seems  some  reason  for  suspecting  that 
his  brain  did  not  remain  in  his  last  years  un- 
affected by  his  excesses  throughout  life),  Antony 
was  doubtless  originally  a  better  man  than  the 
majority  of  the  classical  authors  except  the  kindly 
Plutarch  allowed  him  to  be.  In  the  hands  of 
Cicero,  his  bitter  personal  enemy,  and  of  the 
Augustan  writers  his  character  stood  no  chance  ; 
and  like  all  the  awful  examples  of  antiquity, 
including  even  his  own  great-grandson  the 
Emperor  Nero,  he  has  been  painted  so  black  that 
common  sense  is  forced  to  suspect  some  other 
colours  beneath   the   blackness.     It   is  difficult, 

135 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

however,  to  discern  in  him  many  attributes  of  a 
hero.  He  was  a  fine  soldier,  as  he  showed  at 
Pharsalia  and  PhiUppi ;  perhaps  a  great  general, 
if  we  judge  him  by  his  conduct  in  Southern  Gaul 
in  43  and  in  the  retreat  from  Parthia  in  36.  To 
his  troops  he  appealed  as  a  man  who  could  drink 
with  their  strongest  heads,  talk  with  them  as  an 
equal  in  their  own  language  and  tolerate  their 
familiarity,  while  his  gift  of  bombastic  eloquence 
inspired  them  with  courage  and  his  open-handed- 
ness  after  victory  with  gratitude.  To  his  friends 
also  he  was  generous,  with  the  generosity  of  a 
spendthrift,  having  learnt  at  the  best  school 
for  debt.  Plutarch  represents  him  as  being  led 
astray  in  his  3;^outh  by  his  friendship  with  Caius 
Scribonius  Curio,  which  "  fell  upon  him  like  some 
pestilence,  for  Curio  himself  was  intemperate  in 
his  pleasures  and,  to  make  Antony  more 
manageable,  hurried  him  into  drinking  and  the 
company  of  women  and  extravagant  and  licentious 
expenditure."  Curio,  although  very  much  more 
deeply  in  debt  himself,  became  security  for 
Antony,  who  owed  £60,000.  Curio's  father,  a 
friend  of  Cicero,  getting  to  hear  of  this,  forbade 
Antony  the  house.  The  young  man  then  made  an 
excursion  into  politics  under  the  guidance  of 
Clodius,  perhaps  hoping  that  reckless  mob-leader 
might  help  him  to  cancel  his  debts.  But  after  a 
while  he  judged  it  prudent  to  dissociate  himself 
from   so   suspicious   a   companion,    and   betook 

136 


THE    SHADOW    OF    ROME 

himself  to  the  University  of  Athens,  wHere  he 
took  up  the  study  of  oratory — the  Asiatic  style, 
Plutarch  tells  us,  "  boastful  and  swaggering  and 
full  of  empty  pride."  He  seems  to  have  acquired 
some  taste  for  Greek  letters  and  always  remained 
attached  to  his  cdma  mater  ;  but  it  was  doubtless 
as  the  Paris  of  the  Roman  worid  that  the  Greek 
city  appealed  to  him  most.  The  cultured  luxury 
of  Athens  rather  than  the  culture  in  itself 
attracted  him. 

While  at  Athens  Antony  also  prepared  himself 
for  the  army,  and  at  the  age  of  twenty-five  he 
was,  as  we  have  seen,  sufficiently  advanced  to  be 
put  in  command  of  the  cavalry  of  Aulus  Gabinius 
in  Syria  and  Egypt.  Returning  to  politics,  he 
became  an  adherent  of  Julius  Caesar,  partly 
because  his  friend  Curio  was  a  Caesarian  and 
partly  because  his  own  mother  Julia,  "  a  woman 
who  could  compare  with  the  noblest  and  most 
virtuous  of  her  day,"*  was  a  daughter  of  the 
Lucius  Julius  Caesar  Who  had  been  consul  in  90 
and  was  therefore  a  kinswoman  of  the  future 
Dictator.  With  his  great  abilities  and  his 
military  talent,  Antony  could  but  make  his  mark 
in  the  Caesarian  party.  His  extravagant  pro- 
fligacy, however,  and  his  ever-growing  debts — 
before  leaving  Rome  he  owed  £60,000,  at  the  age 
of  thirty-eight  £400,000 — led  him  to  adopt  means 
of    raising    money    which    discredited    Caesar's 

•  Plutarch,  "  Antony,"  2. 

^Z7  5* 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

Government  when  it  was  left  in  his  charge  after 
Pharsalia.  To  meet  the  expenses  incurred  by 
his  lavish  gifts  to  actresses,  actors,  dancers, 
musicians,  and  all  the  rest  of  the  entertaining 
community  in  whose  society  he  so  delighted,  he 
laid  hands  on  property  confiscated  from 
political  enemies.  This  conduct  and  his  in- 
capacity for  dealing  with  the  internal  affairs  of 
Italy  brought  him  into  temporary  disgrace  with 
Caesar.  He  was  restored  to  favour  in  sufficient 
time  to  find  himself  at  the  Dictator's  death 
certainly  the  most  powerful  figure  in  the  State, 
but  at  the  same  time  not  trusted  by  any  section 
except  the  soldiery,  who  recognised  in  Antony 
one  who  was  emphatically  a  man. 

We  have  alluded  to  the  personal  appearance  of 
Antony  and  to  the  tradition  of  his  descent  from 
Hercules.  This  tradition,  says  Plutarch,  Antony 
liked  to  recall  by  appearing  in  public  in  a  tunic 
girt  up  to  his  thigh,  with  a  thick  cloak  about  him, 
and  with  a  large  sword  hanging  at  his  side.  Now 
after  his  victory  at  Philippi  he  was  destined  to 
meet  his  Omphale,  a  character  in  the  legend  of 
Hercules  which  must  surely  have  occurred  to  his 
mind  when  he  was  living  with  Cleopatra  in 
Alexandria  years  afterwards.  Already  he  had 
shown  himself  very  susceptible  to  women's 
influence.  The  actresses  and  other  beauties  of 
the  day  in  Rome  were  well  acquainted  with  his 
generosity,  and  his  connection  with  the  courtesan 

138 


THE    SHADOW   OF    ROME 

Cytheris  was  notorious  at  home  and  abroad.  He 
had  also  married  in  succession  three  wives  by  the 
time  he  was  thirty-seven.  Of  the  first  nothing 
is  known  except  that  she  was  named  Fadia  and 
was  the  daughter  of  a  freedman.  The  second 
was  his  first  cousin  Antonia,  daughter  of  the 
Caius  Antonius  who  was  Cicero's  colleague  in  his 
famous  consulship.  She  misconducted  herself 
with  Dolabella,  Cicero's  charming  son-in-law, 
then  a  professed  friend  of  Antony,  and  was  in 
consequence  divorced  by  her  husband.  In  46 
B.C.  he  married  Fulvia,  widow  of  Clodius  and  of 
Curio.  Fulvia's  attachment  to  Antony  is  one  of 
the  most  remarkable  features  in  the  story  of  his 
life,  and,  taken  in  conjunction  with  the  un- 
doubted love  of  his  fourth  wife  Octavia  and 
with  the  sentiments  toward  him  attributed  to 
Cleopatra,  argues  a  fascination  about  him  which 
we  might  otherwise  hardly  suspect.  Fulvia  in 
her  intercourse  with  Antony,  however,  was  not 
merely  influenced,  but  herself  influenced  him  in 
her  turn. 

Plutarch  points  out  that  Cleopatra  was  indebted 
to  Fulvia  for  training  Antony  to  feminine  domina- 
tion, "  inasmuch  as  Cleopatra  received  him  quite 
tamed  and  disciplined  from  the  beginning  to  obey 
women." 

It  could  be  wished  that  Plutarch  had 
been  able  to  furnish  us  with  a  little  more 
information    about    Fulvia,    wife    of    two   such 

139 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

extraordinary  men  as  Clodius  and  Antony,  to 
say  nothing  of  Curio.* 

The  same  writer,  after  a  long  but  not  unduly 
severe  criticism  of  some  prominent  traits  of 
Antony's  nature,  especially  his  simplicity,  affa- 
bility, and  openness  to  flattery,  says :  "  Such 
was  his  disposition,  upon  which  came  as  a  crown- 
ing evil  his  love  for  Cleopatra,  which  stirred  up 
and  inflamed  many  passions  still  latent  in  him 
and  utterly  destroyed  whatever  reserve  of  good 
there  was  in  him."  Plutarch's  view,  if  it  has  the 
disadvantage  of  being  shared  by  the  writers 
whose  attitude  toward  Antony  was  unfairly 
biassed  by  their  desire  to  exalt  Octavian,  has  at 
least  the  merit  of  presenting  a  more  consistent 
and  intelUgible  explanation  of  the  story  of 
Antony  and  Cleopatra  than  can  be  given  by  one 
who  rejects  Plutarch  with  the  other  classical 
historians.  If  Antony  and  Cleopatra  are  to  be 
statesman  and  stateswoman  merely,  and  not 
victims  of  an  infatuation,  it  is  necessary  to 
rewrite  the  whole  history  of  the  years  42-30  B.C. 
But  we  cannot  rewrite  the  facts  of  the  battle  of 
Actium,  and  they  most  strongly  support  the 
traditional  view  about  the  Triumvir  and  the 
Egyptian  queen. 

*  "  Both  her  character  and  her  life,"  says  Professor 
Ferrero,  "  had  made  her,  as  it  were,  the  stormy  petrel  of 
revolution."  He  regards  her  as  "  unsexed  by  the  passion 
for  power"  (III.  p.  42).     See  below,  p.  170. 

140 


CHAPTER  VIII 

CLEOPATRA   AND   ANTONY 

Cleopatra  was  twenty-eight  when  the  famous 
meeting  with  Antony  took  place  ;  "  at  an  age," 
Plutarch  remarks,  "  when  woman's  beauty  is 
most  briUiant  and  her  intellect  at  its  full 
maturity."  Nearly  three  years  had  elapsed  since 
she  had  fled  from  Italy,  after  the  death  of  the 
man  whose  place  Antony  was  to  take  as  her  lover 
as  well  as  Rome's  representative  in  the  East. 
These  three  years  she  had  spent  in  Egj^pt,  where, 
in  spite  of  her  early  unpopularity  in  Alexandria, 
she  had  succeeded  in  getting  her  child  by  Caesar 
recognised  as  Son  of  the  Sun  and  joint  ruler  with 
herself  over  the  kingdom,  although  we  do  not 
know  in  what  year  the  association  of  mother  and 
son  was  reckoned  to  begin.*  The  occurrence  of 
a  famine  had  not  brought  disaster  to  her  authority 
in  Eg}^t,  and  she  had  managed  to  save  her 
country  from  being  involved  in  the  civil  struggle 
in  the  Roman  Empire  which  had  culminated  at 
Philippi.  She  had  been  obliged  to  part  with  the 
bodyguard  left    to   her  by  Caesar,  but  she  had 

*  The  Theban  stele,  mentioned  on  p.  94,  is  unfortunately 
mutilated  in  the  place  where  the  date-year  stood  in  the 
Greek  version  ;  while  the  demotic  Egjrptian  version  is 
entirely  obliterated. 

141 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

kept  her  fleet  at  home  instead  of  sending  it  to 
join  that  of  Antony  and  Octavian  in  the  Adriatic. 
It  only  remained  for  her  now  to  furnish  an  ex- 
planation of  her  conduct  to  the  victorious 
Triumvirs,  or,  rather,  to  that  member  of  the 
Triumvirate  who  was  in  the  East. 

The  vassal  kings  of  Asia  Minor  and  Syria  had 
hastened  to  prostrate  themselves  at  Antony's 
feet.  Alone  of  the  nations  dependent  or  semi- 
dependent  on  Rome,  Egypt  was  not  represented 
at  his  Asiatic  court.  Whatever  Cleopatra's 
motive  for  staying  away,  she  certainly  piqued 
Antony.  He  determined  to  renew  his  acquaint- 
ance with  the  queen  who  appeared  to  flout 
his  authority  ;  for  it  is  impossible  to  believe  that 
his  only  object  was  to  secure  the  co-operation  of 
Egypt  in  the  campaign  against  the  Parthians. 
He  therefore  despatched  to  Alexandria  an  agent 
charged  with  the  duty  of  summoning  Cleopatra 
to  meet  him  in  Cilicia.  The  man  whom  he  chose 
was  a  young  Roman  knight  named  Quintus 
Dellius,  of  infamous  morals  and  of  the  most 
elastic  political  conscience  ;  for  in  Asia  Minor 
he  had  associated  himself  in  turn  with  Dolabella, 
Cassius,  and  Antony,  and  was  to  desert  the  last- 
named  again  before  the  battle  of  Actium.* 
Although  he  became  a  friend  of  the  Emperor 

*  Seneca  says  that  he  was  called  the  desultor  of  the  Civil 
Wars,  a  desultor  being  a  circus-performer  who  leapt  from  one 
horse's  back  to  another's  as  they  galloped  round  the  ring. 

142 


CLEOPATRA    AND    ANTONY 

Augustus,  of  Maecenas,  and  of  the  Roman 
literary  world  in  general,  including  Horace 
he  did  not  succeed  in  concealing  his  reputation 
for  viciousness  from  posterity,  and  so  remains 
as  an  example  of  that  gilded  youth  of  which 
not  even  Rome  herself,  who  produced  them, 
could  be  proud. 

Dellius  apparently  had  never  seen  Cleopatra 
before  he  came  on  his  errand  to  Alexandria. 
According  to  Plutarch,  he  no  sooner  looked  on 
her  face  and  noted  her  ready  tongue  and  versatile 
wits  than  he  felt  sure  that  not  only  would  Antony 
never  dream  of  doing  her  any  harm,  but  she  would 
have  the  greatest  influence  over  him.  "So  he 
set  himself  at  once  to  pay  court  to  her,  and 
encouraged  the  Egyptian,  with  a  quotation 
from  Homer,  to  '  go  bedecked  in  her  best  attire  ' 
to  CUicia  and  not  to  fear  Antony,  the  gentlest 
and  kindest  of  generals."  Later  scandal  made 
Dellius  accepted  by  Cleopatra  as  a  lover  ;  but 
it  was  so  easy  to  bring  such  an  accusation  against 
her  that  it  would  have  been  surprising  had  it 
not  been  brought.  The  queen  prepared  to  go 
to  the  Triumvir,  secure  in  the  knowledge  that 
she  was  more  fascinating  now  at  twenty-eight 
than  when  as  an  inexperienced  girl  she  had 
conquered  the  heart  of  Julius  Caesar.  She  did 
not  start  from  Alexandria  empty-handed,  but 
with  an  abundance  of  money  and  valuable  gifts, 
"  such  as  might  be  expected  from  so  great  an 

143 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

estate  and  so  wealthy  a  kingdom  as  hers,"  says 
Plutarch,  adding  :  "  Yet  she  went  to  Cilicia  rely- 
ing chiefly  upon  her  own  seductions  and  charms." 

Still  maintaining  her  attitude  of  reluctance, 
Cleopatra  made  no  undue  haste  to  come  to 
Tarsus,  where  Antony  awaited  her,  but  allowed 
several  letters  from  him  and  his  friends  to  reach 
her  before  she  actually  set  out.  At  last  her 
fleet  reached  the  mouth  of  the  river  Cydnus, 
twelve  miles  up-stream  from  which  lay  the 
capital  of  Cilicia.  Plutarch's  description  of  the 
wonderful  scene  is  familiar  to  most  readers  from 
Shakespeare's  adaptation  in  "  Antony  and  Cleo- 
patra," Act  II,  Scene  2.  Yet  we  may  be  allowed 
to  quote  from  his  narrative  how  Cleopatra, 

"As  if  in  mockery,  sailed  up  the  river  in  a 
vessel  with  a  gilded  stem,  with  sails  of  purple 
outspread,  and  with  silver  oars  moving  in  time 
to  the  sound  of  flutes  and  pipes  and  harps.  She 
herself,  decked  like  Aphrodite  in  a  picture,  lay 
under  an  awning  bespangled  with  gold,  while 
boys  like  painted  Cupids  stood  on  either  side 
fanning  her.  At  the  helm  and  by  the  rigging 
stood  her  most  beautiful  slave-women  in  the 
guise  of  Nereids  and  Graces.  Marvellous  odours 
from  many  censers  spread  to  the  banks,  along 
which  some  of  the  multitude  followed  her  from 
the  river-mouth,  others  coming  down  from 
the  city  to  gaze  upon  the  spectacle.  As  the 
crowd  from  the  market-place  also  poured  forth, 

144 


CLEOPATRA   AND   ANTONY 

at  last  Antony  was  left  sitting  alone  upon  the 
tribunal,  while  the  rumour  spread  about  that 
Aphrodite  was  come  to  feast  with  Dionysos  for 
the  common  good  of  Asia."* 

Cleopatra's  ruse  succeeded  to  the  utmost  of 
her  expectation.  Antony,  instead  of  seeing  her 
before  him  'in  the  attitude  of  a  suppliant,  felt 
constrained  to  send  her  an  invitation  to  dinner  ; 
to  which  she  replied  that  it  was  more  suitable 
that  he  should  come  to  dine  with  her.  There- 
upon, in  the  words  which  Shakespeare  puts 
into  the  mouth  of  his  Enobarbus, 

Our  courteous  Antony, 
Whom  ne'er  the  word  of  "  No  "  woman  heard  speak. 
Being  barber'd  ten  times  o'er,  goes  to  the  feast ; 
And,  for  his  ordinary,  pays  his  heart 
For  what  his  eyes  eat  only. 

Of  Antony's  "  ordinary  "  we  have  fortunately 
a  description  which  the  third-century  Egyptian 
author  Athenaeus  quotes  from  an  earlier  writer, 
Socrates  the  Rhodian,  whose  works  are  lost. 
Plutarch  only  records  that  Antony  found  a  pre- 
paration greater  than  he  expected,  and  that  he 
was  especially  surprised  at  the  great  number  of 
the  lights,  the  illuminations  being  hung  down 
over  the  diners  in  squares  and  circles,  so  as  to 
make  a  scene  seldom  equalled.  But  Socrates 
relates  how  Cleopatra  prepared 

*  The  parallel  has  often  been  pointed  out  between  this 
and  the  incident  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  XIV,  when  Paul 
and  Barnabas  were  saluted  at  the  Lycaonian  town  of  Lystra 
by  the  names  of  Hermes  and  Zeus. 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

"  A  royal  entertainment,  in  which  every  dish 
was  golden  and  inlaid  with  precious  stones, 
wonderfully  chased  and  embossed.  The  walls 
were  hung  with  cloths  embroidered  in  purple 
and  gold.  And  she  had  twelve  triple  couches 
laid,  and  invited  Antony  to  a  banquet  and 
desired  him  to  bring  with  him  whatever  com- 
panions he  pleased.  And  he,  being  astonished 
at  the  magnificence  of  the  sight,  expressed  his 
surprise  ;  and  she,  smiling,  said  she  made  him 
a  present  of  everything  he  saw,  and  invited  him 
to  sup  with  her  again  the  next  day  and  to  bring 
his  friends  and  captains  with  him.  Then  she 
prepared  a  banquet  far  more  splendid  than  the 
former  one,  so  as  to  make  the  first  appear  con- 
temptible ;  and  again  she  presented  to  him  every- 
thing that  there  was  on  the  table.  And  she  desired 
each  of  his  captains  to  take  for  his  own  the  couch 
on  which  he  lay  and  the  goblets  which  were  set 
before  each  couch.  And  when  they  were  de- 
parting she  gave  to  all  those  of  the  highest  rank 
litters,  with  slaves  as  litter-bearers  ;  and  to  the 
rest  she  gave  horses,  adorned  with  gold  trappings  ; 
and  to  every  one  she  gave  Ethiopian  boys  to 
bear  torches  before  them.  And  on  the  fourth 
day  she  paid  more  than  a  talent  [nearly  ^^250] 
for  roses  ;  and  the  floor  of  the  chamber  for  the 
men  was  strewn  a  cubit  deep,  nets  being  spread 
over  the  blooms."* 

*  Athenaeus,  IV.  29. 
146 


CLEOPATRA    AND    ANTONY 

Plutarch  says  that  Antony  entertained  Cleo- 
patra in  his  turn,  and  was  anxious  to  surpass 
her  in  magnificence.  So  poor  was  his  success, 
however,  that  he  was  the  first  to  jest  at  the 
coarseness  and  rusticity  of  his  own  entertain- 
ment ;  while  she,  "  seeing  that  his  raillery  was 
that  of  the  soldier,  not  of  the  polished  courtier, 
fell  at  once  freely  and  boldly  into  the  same  manner 
toward  him."  She  made  no  such  mistake  as 
treating  Antony  as  she  had  treated  Julius  Caesar. 
She  keyed  herself  down  to  his  pitch  in  the  way 
which  has  gained  for  her  the  reputation  of  being 
the  cleverest  of  all  royal  courtesans  ;  although 
any  one  who  embarks  upon  the  hopeless  task 
of  defending  Cleopatra's  character  is  quite 
entitled  to  point  out  that  adaptability  to  masculine 
environment  is  no  certain  proof  of  a  woman's 
looseness  of  morals. 

Once  again  there  had  occurred  in  the  case  of 
Antony  what  Dion  Cassius  remarked  with  regard 
to  Caesar.  ' '  He  had  already  become  the  advocate 
of  her  whose  judge  he  had  intended  to  be." 
Cleopatra  had  been  summoned  to  Tarsus  to  explain 
how  it  was  that  she  had  not  assisted  the  Triumvirs 
against  Brutus  and  Ccissius.  Appian  states  that 
Antony  did  actually  censure  her  for  not  sharing 
the  task  of  avenging  Caesar,  and  that  she,  in- 
stead of  apologising,  enumerated  what  she  had 
done,  which  included  the  despatch  of  her  body- 
guard to  Dolabella,  the  refusal  of  assistance  to 

147 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

Cassius,  and  the  fitting  out  of  a  fleet  and  her 
own  departure  with  it  from  Alexandria,  frustrated 
by  the  storm  which  wrecked  the  ships.  Antony 
abandoned  the  pretence  of  sitting  in  judgment 
on  the  queen.  Some  may  beUeve  that  he  par- 
doned her  in  consideration  of  her  promise  of 
help  in  the  war  against  the  Parthians.  Appian, 
agreeing  with  all  other  ancient  writers,  remarks 
that  "  Antony  was  amazed  at  her  wit  as  well 
as  her  beauty,  and  became  her  captive  as  if  he 
were  a  young  man,  although  he  was  forty  years 
of  age." 

"  Straightway,"  continues  the  same  historian, 
"  Antony's  interest  in  public  affairs  began  to 
dwindle.  Whatever  Cleopatra  ordered  was  done, 
regardless  of  laws  human  or  divine."  Although 
he  was  a  man  naturally  inclined  to  good-humoured 
clemency  toward  opponents,  with  the  exception 
of  a  few  personal  enemies,  such  as  Cicero  (who 
had  put  to  death  in  63  his  stepfather,  Cornelius 
Lentulus)  and  Hortensius  (whom,  rather  than 
Brutus,  he  considered  responsible  for  the  death 
of  his  brother,  Caius  Antonius,  and  had  executed 
over  Caius's  tomb  in  Macedonia),  Antony  con- 
sented now  to  the  perpetration  of  the  deed  which 
has  left  the  greatest  stain  on  Cleopatra's  repu- 
tation. The  Princess  Arsinoe,  after  she  had  been 
made  to  figure  in  Caesar's  Egyptian  triumph, 
had  been  allowed  to  leave  Rome  and  seek  refuge 
in  Asia  Minor.     For  safety  she  adopted  a  plan 

148 


CLEOPATRA   AND    ANTONY 

equivalent  to  the  more  modern  resource  of  taking 
the  veil.  She  had  gone  to  the  great  temple 
of  Artemis  at  Ephesus  and  thrown  herself  as 
a  suppliant  before  the  altar  of  the  goddess.  The 
megabyzos  or  high-priest  had  received  her  kindly 
and  had  even  treated  her  as  if  she  were  a  queen. 
When  Cleopatra  came  to  meet  Antony  at  Tarsus, 
Arsinoe  was  still  at  Ephesus*  and  might  well 
have  considered  herself  safe  against  her  sister's 
hatred.  But  Cleopatra  evidently  did  not  forgive 
Arsinoe  even  when  retired  from  the  world,  and 
assassins  were  sent  who  slew  the  unfortunate 
princess  in  the  sanctuary.  We  do  not  know 
whether  there  was  any  pretext  of  a  plot  to  set 
Arsinoe  again  upon  the  throne  of  Egypt  which 
she  had  once  held  for  a  few  weeks  as  the  repre- 
sentative of  her  sister  and  the  elder  of  her  two 
brothers.  It  might  be  imagined  that  Cleopatra 
felt  secure  enough  in  Egypt,  with  Antony's  pat- 
ronage, to  overlook  the  fact  that  Arsinoe  still 
lived.  But  it  was  not  the  custom  of  the  Lagidae, 
women  or  men,  to  show  mercy  to  their  nearest 
kindred.     Arsinoe  followed  her  wretched  brothers 


*  Appian  (V.  9)  says  the  murder  took  place  at  the  temple 
of  "  Artemis  Leukophryne  at  Miletus.  '  But  Artemis  of 
the  White  Brows  was  housed  at  Magnesia,  and  it  appears 
from  Appian's  own  narrative  as  if  it  were  at  Ephesus  that 
Arsinoe  met  her  fate,  as  Josephus  positively  states.  From 
the  vague  words  of  Dion  Cassius,  XLVIII,  24,  we  might 
imagine  that  Ptolemy  XV  was  also  slain  at  this  time  ;  but 
perhaps  Dion  is  alluding  in  a  confused  way  to  the  execution 
of  the  pseudo-Ptolemy  XIV. 

149 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

to    the   grave,    even    more    directly    than    they 
victims  to  the  ambition  of  a  sister. 

Cleopatra's  vindictiveness  was  not  appeased 
by  the  murder  of  Arsinoe.  An  attempt  was 
made  to  call  to  account  the  megahyzos  of  Ephesus 
for  his  reception  of  the  fugitive  as  though  she 
were  a  queen.  But  the  Ephesians,  proud  of  the 
sanctity  of  their  five-hundred-year-old  temple, 
succeeded  in  obtaining  mercy  for  the  priest. 
Cleopatra,  however,  prevailed  upon  Antorly 
to  order  the  execution  of  a  man  claiming  to  be 
Ptolemy  XIV,  saved  from  the  battle  against 
Caesar  on  the  Nile,  and  of  Serapion,  the  Cyprian 
viceroy  who  had  allowed  Cassius  to  commandeer 
his  fleet.  Both  of  these  had  sought  an  asylum 
in  Phoenicia,  but  they  failed  to  escape  from  the 
wrath  of  Cleopatra. 

"  I  am  persuaded  that  he  has  been  bewitched 
by  that  accursed  woman."  So  Octavian  is 
reported  by  Dion  Cassius  to  have  remarked  later 
with  regard  to  Antony's  infatuation  for  Cleopatra. 
Unless  we  are  convinced  by  the  eloquence  of 
Professor  Ferrero  and  believe  that  Antony  was 
merely  eager  to  secure  Cleopatra  as  his  ally 
against  Parthia,  we  may  think  that  Octavian 
would  have  been  justified  in  making  his  remark 
already  in  41  B.C.  For,  after  sending  the  queen 
ahead  of  himself  to  Alexandria  while  he  settled 
the  affairs  of  Syria  in  the  usual  method,  by 
bestowing  the  petty  vassal  thrones  upon  princes 

150 


CLEOPATRA    AND    ANTONY 

who  had  won  his  favour,  he  put  the  mihtary 
command  of  the  province  in  the  hands  of  a 
Heutenant  and  then  followed  Cleopatra  to  Egypt. 
How  he  spent  the  winter  there  must  be  left  for 
the  next  chapter.  Here  we  may  stop  to  glance  at 
the  condition  of  affairs  in  the  world  from  which 
Antony  did  not  hesitate  to  withdraw  himself  in 
order  to  give  himself  up  to  the  enjoyment  of  the 
Alexandrian  winter-season  with  Cleopatra. 

When  after  the  battle  of  Philippi  Antony  went 
east,  while  Octavian  returned  to  Rome,  still 
suffering  from  the  sickness  which  had  caused 
him  to  play  so  small  a  part  in  the  battle,  the 
situation  in  Italy  was  not  easy  for  the  Triumvirs, 
both  owing  to  the  extravagant  promises  which 
they  had  made  to  their  troops,  and  because 
the  sea  south  of  Italy  remained  in  the  hands  of 
Sextus  Pompeius,  younger  brother  of  Cleopatra's 
former  friend,  and  last  representative  of  the  old 
Pompeian  party.  Sextus  Pompeius  was  in  a 
position  to  cut  off  Rome's  corn-supplies  from 
over-seas,  and  so  cause  a  bread-famine.  The 
distribution  of  land  among  the  soldiers  victorious 
at  Philippi  led  to  discontent  in  Italy,  and  to 
friction  between  the  followers  of  Antony  and 
Octavian  respectively.  Antony  had  a  number 
of  agents  to  look  after  his  interests  in  Rome, 
including  his  wife  Fulvia  and  his  brother  Lucius. 
Lucius  Antonius,  one  of  the  consuls  for  41,  was 
decidedly  Republican  in  his  views,  and  is  reported 

151 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

by  Appian  as  sajang  :  "I  shall  always  set  my 
country  above  personal  gratitude  and  above 
family."  His  willingness  to  support  his  brother 
was  strengthened  by  the  jealousy  with  which  he 
watched  Octavian  wielding  power  usurped  from 
the  State.  His  view  was  that  his  brother  should 
lay  down  the  triumvirate  simultaneously  with  his 
colleagues,  and,  accepting  the  consulship  instead, 
restore  the  legal  government  of  their  forefathers. 
Fulvia,  on  the  other  hand,  untroubled  by  Repub- 
lican scruples,  is  represented  by  the  ancient  his- 
torians as  intentionally  stirring  up  trouble  in 
Rome  in  order  to  bring  her  husband  home  from 
the  East.*  Thus,  although  both  brother  and 
wife  were  claiming  to  uphold  his  cause,  neither 
in  reality  when  precipitating  a  crisis  with  Octavian 
was  acting  in  consultation  with  Antony,  who  did 
not  desire  to  be  distracted  from  his  schemes  of 
empire  in  the  East. 

Lucius  and  Fulvia,  nevertheless,  pressed 
matters  so  far  that  at  length  they  were  compelled 
(or  said  they  were  compelled)  to  fly  from  Rome  to 
Praeneste.  From  here  they  wrote  to  Antony 
complaining  that  their  lives  and  those  of  his 
children  were  in  danger  from  Octavian.  These 
letters  Antony  may  never  have  received.     At 

*  E.g.  Plutarch,  "  Antony,"  30,  says  :  "  She  was  natur- 
ally an  energetic  and  daring  woman  ;  but  her  hope  was  to 
draw  Antony  away  from  Cleopatra  if  there  should  be  any 
disturbance  m  Italy."  As  will  be  seen,  she  drew  him  away, 
but  not  to  herself,  since  death  intervened. 

152 


CLEOPATRA    AND    ANTONY 

any  rate  he  took  no  notice  of  them.  Lucius 
Antonius,  without  waiting  to  hear  from  his 
brother,  made  ready  for  war.  Setting  up  the 
standard  of  the  RepubHc  he  marched  on  Rome, 
in  Octavian's  absence,  and  seized  it,  driving 
out  Lepidus,  the  insignificant  third  partner  in 
the  Triumvirate.  In  sallying  out  from  Rome, 
however,  to  cut  off  reinforcements  coming  to 
Octavian  from  the  North,  Lucius  was  himself 
cut  off  and  obliged  to  take  refuge  in  the  Etrurian 
town  of  Perusia,  the  modern  Perugia.  This  was 
in  the  autumn  of  41.  Octavian  kept  Perusia 
closely  blockaded  until  the  following  spring, 
when  the  garrison  was  compelled  by  famine  to 
surrender.  Lucius  Antonius  was  pardoned  by 
Octavian ;  but  some  executions  were  carried 
out  among  his  adherents,  while  the  town  was 
accidentally  burnt  to  the  ground.  The  break-up 
of  the  militant  Antonian  party  in  Italy  was  com- 
plete. Fulvia,  taking  her  children  with  her,  fled  to 
Greece,  and  a  number  of  other  prominent  people 
started  to  make  their  way  to  Antony  himself. 

While  matters  had  been  going  thus  ill  for 
Antony  in  Italy,  Asiatic  affairs  had  gone  even 
worse.  When  he  followed  Cleopatra  to  Alexandria 
near  the  end  of  41,  he  left  his  ofiicer  Decidius 
Saxa,  a  Spanish  protege  of  the  Dictator  Caesar, 
in  command  of  the  troops  in  S5n-ia,  and  on  the 
watch  against  any  movement  of  the  Parthians. 
He  had  distributed  among  his  S5n:ian  friends  the 

153 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

small  principalities  of  the  country,  including 
Judaea,  of  which  he  made  the  brothers  Herod 
and  Phasael  tetrarchs.  Herod  had  obtained 
his  reward  for  his  second  change  of  front.  Having 
been  a  Caesarian,  he  had  joined  Cassius,  only 
to  become  a  fervent  Antonian  upon  Antony's 
arrival  in  Asia.  The  princes  dispossessed  to 
make  way  for  Antony's  nominees  took  the 
obvious  step  of  appealing  to  the  only  other  great 
power  of  which  they  had  any  knowledge  except 
Rome,  the  Parthians.  This  rather  mysterious 
nation  had  recovered  from  the  checks  to  its 
expansion  which  had  been  administered  by 
Mithridates  of  Pontus  and  Tigranes  of  Armenia, 
and,  emboldened  by  the  fact  that  Rome  had  not 
yet  been  able  to  avenge  the  defeat  and  death  of 
Crassus  at  Carrhae  twelve  years  before,  was 
ready  to  interfere  actively  in  the  affairs  of  the 
Levant.  Several  circumstances  seemed  to  favour 
the  Parthians.  Asia  Minor  and  Sjnna  had  suffered 
heavily  from  Antony's  exactions,  and  could  bear 
no  love  toward  his  rule.  The  expelled  princes 
had  left  adherents  behind  them.  The  Roman 
garrisons  consisted  in  part  of  troops  which 
had  once  served  under  Cassius,  and  were  therefore 
unsound.  And,  lastly,  the  Parthians  had  with 
them  an  actual  renegade,  Quintus  Labienus,  an 
associate  of  Cassius  and  Brutus,  who  had  lived 
at  the  Parthian  court  since  before  the  battle  of 
Philippi,    and   who    had   considerable   influence 

154 


CLEOPATRA    AND    ANTONY 

with  King  Orodes.  In  conjunction  with  the  king's 
son  Pacorus,  Labienus  led  an  expedition  across 
the  Euphrates  and  into  the  Roman  provinces 
of  Asia  and  Syria.  Decidius  Saxa  made  a  vain 
attempt  to  stop  them,  but  was  defeated  ;  and 
by  the  spring  of  40  Rome's  Levantine  provinces 
were  in  Parthian  hands.  The  newly  established 
princes  of  Syria  had  been  driven  from  their 
thrones.  Phasael  was  slain,  and  Herod  was 
in  flight  toward  Egypt.  In  the  province  of  Asia 
every  town  had  yielded  except  the  Carian  Strato- 
nikeia.  Labienus  was  exultingly  calling  himself 
Imperator  and  Parthicus  for  his  victories  over  the 
soldiers  and  subjects  of  his  own  native  country. 
The  disgrace  of  Carrhae  had  been  surpassed. 
And  meanwhile  Antony  was  in  Egypt. 

Professor  Ferrero,  in  his  defence  of  his  hero, 
remarks  that,  "  if  it  is  beyond  doubt  that  Antony 
gave  himself  up  to  pleasures  this  winter  in  the 
immense  and  sumptuous  palace  of  the  Ptolemies 
it  is  certain  also  that  he  devoted  attention  to 
serious  matters,  nay  even  to  the  most  serious 
matter  which  could  occupy  the  chief  man  of  the 
Republic,  the  most  illustrious  magistrate  of  the 
Empire."  We  must  now  see  what  were  the 
pleasures  for  which  Antony  found  time  when 
not  devoting  his  thoughts  to  the  war  against 
Parthia,  for  we  shall  then  be  better  able  to  judge 
how  strict  his  attention  to  the  coming  war  was 
likely  to  have  been. 

155 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE    "  INIMITABLES  " 

Plutarch  remarks  that  Cleopatra  so  captivated 
Antony  that,  while  his  wife  Fulvia  was  fighting 
his  quarrel  in  Rome  against  Octavian  and  while 
the  Parthians  were  threatening  Syria,  he  "  suffered 
himself  to  be  carried  off  by  her  to  Alexandria, 
there  to  stay  and  amuse  himself  like  a  boy 
in  holiday-time,  squandering  on  pleasure  what 
Antiphon  calls  the  most  costly  of  all  treasures. 
Time."  The  old  Greek  biographer  cannot  be 
accused  of  undue  severity  when  he  thus  criticises 
Antony's  conduct  in  going  to  Egypt  for  the  winter 
of  41-40  ;  nor,  as  it  has  been  proved  by  inscrip- 
tions, of  an  over-vivid  imagination  when  he 
proceeds  to  describe  how  there  was  founded  at 
Alexandria  a  club  called  the  Amimetohioi  or 
Inimitable  Livers,  "  whose  members  entertained 
one  another  daily  in  turn,  at  a  cost  extravagant 
beyond  belief."  There  have  been  found,  indeed, 
in  Egypt  two  Greek  inscriptions,  one  on  the 
pedestal  of  a  statue  of  Antony  styling  him 
"  The  Inimitable,  the  Well-doer,"  and  the  other 
a  dedication  to  "  Antonios  the  Great  and 
Inimitable."* 

*  Bouch6-Leclercq,    "  Histoire   des   Lagides,"    II.    p.   239, 
n.  I  ;    Mahaffy,  "  Empire  of  the  Ptolemies,"  p.  467,  n.  i. 

156 


THE    "  INIMITABLES  " 

Alexandria  abounded  in  clubs  copied,  with  due 
regard  to  the  absolute  rule  of  the  Ptolemies,  from 
the  similar  institutions,  the  Eranoi,  Hetairiai, 
Thiasoi,  and  so  on,  in  the  free  cities  of  Greece 
and  Asia  Minor.  We  hear,  however,  but  little 
of  these  Alexandrian  societies,  whether  political, 
social,  or  religious,  beyond  one  or  two  allusions 
in  Plutarch,  Athenaeus,  and  Dion  Chrysostom,* 
and  no  details  are  ever  forthcoming  of  their 
organisation.  Ptolemy  IV  Philopator  was  repre- 
sented as  spending  a  good  deal  of  his  disreputable 
reign  in  the  company  of  women  and  revelling 
clubmen.  The  club  of  the  Amimetohioi  founded 
by  Cleopatra  in  conjunction  with  Antony  was 
clearly  on  the  same  lines  as  those  patronised  by 
her  ancestor  Philopator. 

The  "  inimitability  "  of  the  life  led  by  these 
gay  revellers  was  chiefly  due,  it  must  be  confessed, 
to  the  fact  that  until  the  time  of  the  multi- 
millionaires of  to-day  there  has  been  scarcely 
any  one  who  could  compete  in  riches  with  the 
last  queen  of  the  always  wealthy  line  of  the 
Lagidae,  Cleopatra,  however,  had  an  advantage 
over  the  later  plutocrats  in  that  she  was  endowed 
with  more  artistic  taste  than  they — and  we 
may  say  this  in  spite  of  her  many  displays  of 
ostentation  only  worthy  of  sons  of  the  kings  of 

*  M.     Bouch6-Lcclercq      ("  Histoire    des     Lagides,"  III. 

pp.    170  ff.)    has  collected  all   the  known  references.  The 

allusion  to   Ptolemy   Philopator   is   from   Plutarch,    "  Cleo- 
menes,"  34. 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

modem  finance — and  that  she  had  a  background 
for  her  splendid  follies  far  more  magnificent  than 
any  city  of  the  present  time  can  provide.  Set 
in  the  midst  of  parks  and  gardens  beautiful 
with  palms,  sycomores,  and  mimosas,  with 
aromatic  shrubs,  with  roses,  viokts,  and  all 
the  choicest  flowers  known  to  the  ancient  world, 
with  ponds  full  of  lotus  and  of  nenuphars ;  sur- 
rounded by  the  mansions  of  the  rich,  the  vast 
public  buildings,  and  the  majestic  temples  of 
the  gods  of  Egypt  and  of  Greece  ;  approached 
through  avenues  of  sphinxes,  between  obelisks, 
and  across  courtyards  sheltered  from  the  sun 
by  hangings  of  heavy  purple  cloth, — the  Royal 
Palace  of  the  Lagidae  itself  would  seem  to  have 
caused  contemporary  writers  to  despair  of  doing 
it  justice,  or  if  any  description  was  ever  written 
it  has  unhappily  been  lost.  We  can  imagine, 
however,  to  some  extent  from  the  account, 
preserved  by  Athenaeus  and  quoted  in  Chapter 
V,  of  the  floating  palaces  of  the  Ptolemies  how 
sumptuous  must  have  been  the  permanent 
residence  of  the  wealthiest  kings  on  earth. 

Here,  in  a  masterpiece  constructed  out  of  every 
beautiful  wood,  stone,  and  metal  which  could  be 
brought  together,  and  enriched  by  sovereign  after 
sovereign  of  her  family,  Cleopatra  entertained 
her  friends  with  all  the  luxury  which  Greece, 
Egypt,  Persia,  and  Rome  combined  had  been 
able  to  devise.    And  did  not  the  heroine  of  M. 

158 


THE    "  INIMITABLES  " 

Pierre  Louys's  "  Une  Volupte  Nouvelle "  say 
that  the  only  fresh  joy  which  modem  civiHsation 
has  been  able  to  discover  is  that  of  smoking  ? 
The  pleasures  of  the  table  have  always  occupied 
a  pre-eminent  place  in  an  environment  of  general 
extravagance,  and,  since  the  model  of  Alexandria 
was  very  closely  followed  under  the  Roman 
Empire,  we  can  gather  from  the  writings  of 
Nero's  friend  Petronius  how  positively  terrifying 
must  have  been  the  banquets  which  were  set 
before  the  guests  who  lay  on  the  silver  couches 
in  the  banqueting-halls  of  Cleopatra's  Palace, 
built  up  on  huge  columns,  thronged  with  slaves 
lovely  or  grotesque  and  entertainers  of  every 
profession  and  nationality,  and  heavy  with  the 
odour  of  incense  and  strewn  roses.  We  must 
not  pause,  however,  to  discuss  the  question  of 
ancient  gastronomy.  It  will  suffice  perhaps  to 
mention  a  fact  which  Plutarch  recalls  as  being 
told  to  his  grandfather  by  a  Greek  doctor,  who 
knew  one  of  the  royal  cooks  at  Alexandria  during 
Cleopatra's  reign  and  was  taken  by  him  into  the 
Palace  kitchens. 

"  He  saw  everything  in  great  abundance," 
says  Plutarch,  "  including  eight  wild  boars 
roasting,  which  made  him  wonder  at  the  number 
of  the  guests.  Hereupon  the  cook  laughed, 
and  told  him  that  the  party  at  supper  was  not 
very  large,  only  about  a  dozen  ;  but  it  was 
necessary   that   everything   served   up   at   table 

159 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

should  be  perfect,  which  the  loss  of  a  moment 
of  time  might  prevent.  Antony  might  perchance 
wish  to  sup  immediately,  he  said,  and  then  might 
delay  matters  by  asking  for  a  cup  of  wine  or  by  en- 
gaging in  some  conversation.  Accordingly,  he 
continued,  not  one  supper  is  prepared  but  many, 
since  the  exact  hour  is  hard  to  conjecture." 

It  was^  not  merely  the  food  (and  the  wines) 
which  made  the  Alexandrian  banquets  so  as- 
tonishing. Cleopatra  was  noted  for  nothing 
more  splendid  than  her  table-service,  which  was 
so  remarkable  that  a  later  royal  lady,  Zenobia 
Queen  of  Palmyra,  three  centuries  after  her,  was 
satisfied  with  none  but  Cleopatran  plates  and 
dishes,  it  was  said.  Now  Athenaeus  relates 
that,  whereas  fonnerly  vessels  of  earthenware 
were  considered  good  enough,  "  when  the  Romans 
altered  the  way  of  life,  giving  it  a  more  expensive 
direction,  then  Cleopatra,  arranging  her  style 
of  living  in  imitation  of  them,  since  she  was 
unable  to  change  the  name  called  gold  and  silver 
plate  keramon  [earthenware]  ;  and  she  gave 
her  guests  what  she  called  the  kerama  to  carry 
away  with  them."  This,  Athenaeus  adds,  was 
very  costly.  Plutarch,  too,  narrates,  on  the 
authority  of  his  grandfather's  friend,  how  Antony's 
son,  Antyllus,  when  he  went  to  live  with  his 
father  at  Alexandria,  imitated  Cleopatra's  gener- 
osity with  her  plate,  and  how,  when  the  doctor 
seemed  unwilling  to  take  the  gift,  the  slave  who 

i6o 


THE    "  INIMITABLES  " 

had  brought  them  to  him  said  :  "  Why  do  you 
hesitate,  you  fool  ?  Do  you  not  know  that  the 
giver  is  Antony's  son,  and  that  he  has  authority 
to  make  presents  of  so  many  things  of  gold  ?  " 
This  last  tale,  though  illustrative  of  the  ways 
of  the  "  Inimitables,"  belongs  to  a  later  period 
than  Antony's  first  winter  in  Alexandria.  So 
also,  perhaps,  does  that  told  by  Pliny  of  Cleo- 
patra's wager  to  spend  ten  million  sesterces 
(about  £90,000)  at  a  single  banquet.  Antony 
accepted  the  bet,  and,  as  the  meal  was  no  more 
magnificent  than  usual,  toward  the  end  of  it 
he  began  to  rally  Cleopatra  on  her  wager.  There- 
upon she  told  him  he  had  so  far  only  seen  the 
accessories  and,  taking  one  of  two  immensely 
valuable  pearl  earrings  from  her  ears,  put  it  into 
a  cup  of  vinegar.  The  judge  of  the  bet  was 
Plancus,  the  same  man  to  whom  Horace  addresses 
an  ode.  He  gave  his  decision  in  favour  of  the 
queen  and  stopped  her  from  sacrificing  the  other 
earring,  which,  according  to  Pliny,  was  after- 
wards found  by  Octavian  among  Cleopatra's 
treasure  seized  at  Alexandria,  and  by  him  cut 
in  two  to  decorate  the  ears  of  the  statue  of  Venus 
in  the  Pantheum  at  Rome.  Perhaps  it  need 
hardly  be  remarked  that  this  story,  although  it 
has  obtained  great  celebrity,  is  not  necessarily 
true.  But  the  same  remark,  unfortunately, 
applies  also  to  most  tales  in  history,  modem  as 
well  as  ancient. 

161  6 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

In  the  midst  of  all  this  magnificence  and  pro- 
digious waste,  Cleopatra  took  heed  that  Antony 
should  not  grow  merely  surfeited  with  luxury. 
Although  he  was  a  very  different  kind  of  man 
from  Julius  Caesar,  it  required  wit  as  well  as 
wealth  to  keep  even  him  in  bondage.  Plutarch 
pictures  her  to  us  as  constantly  inventing  some- 
thing new  to  charm  or  amuse  him  ;  and,  while 
leaving  him  neither  night  nor  day,  accommodating 
herself  to  all  his  desires,  whether  he  diced  or 
drank  or  hunted  or  exercised  himself  at  arms. 
As  he  was  not  devoid  of  a  certain  superficial 
culture,  he  had  no  objection  to  putting  on  the 
dress  of  a  Greek  and  the  fashionable  white  shoes 
of  Athens  and  attending  lectures  at  the  Museum. 
But  at  times  his  animal  spirits  required  in  their 
turn  an  outlet  which  neither  the  polite  exercises 
of  a  Greek  gymnasium  nor  military  training 
could  provide.  Then,  when  he  put  on  the  clothes 
of  a  slave  and  went  out  by  night  to  divert  him- 
self, Cleopatra  would  dress  herself  like  him 
and  share  in  his  escapades.  For  Antony  by  no 
means  confined  himself  to  the  mild  adventures 
for  which  Haroun  Al-Raschid  sought.  Rather, 
like  not  a  few  princes  since  the  Caliph's  days, 
he  went  out  looking  for  opportunities  for  wild 
horseplay,  and  he  so  far  succeeded  that  he  always 
returned  home  "  well  loaded  with  abuse  and 
sometimes  even  with  blows."* 

*  Plutarch,  "  Antony,"  29. 
162 


THE    "  INIMITABLES  " 

Plutarch  truly  observes  that  to  go  into  details 
about  the  follies  committed  in  Alexandria  would 
be  "  mere  trifling."  He  allows  himself,  however, 
to  relate  the  story  of  Antony's  fishing.  This  is 
perhaps  too  well  known  to  need  repetition — how 
Cleopatra,  to  raise  a  laugh  against  her  lover, 
who  had  employed  divers  to  fasten  already  caught 
fish  to  his  line,  invited  a  number  of  guests  to 
admire  his  skill,  and  then  sent  down  a  diver  to 
put  on  the  hook  a  salted  fish,  which  he  drew  up 
amid  great  merriment.  It  is  interesting,  never- 
theless, as  showing  how  she  took  advantage  of 
Antony's  good-natured  toleration  of  a  joke 
against  himself ;  and  also  how  she  appreciated 
another  prominent  trait  in  his  character,  his 
capacity  for  accepting  flattery.  For,  having 
raised  the  laugh  against  him,  she  soothed  him 
with  these  words :  "  Leave  the  fishing-rod. 
Great  General,  to  us  sovereigns  of  Pharos  and 
Canopus.  Your  game  is  cities  and  kings  and 
continents." 

In  some  cities  the  spectacle  of  an  eminent 
foreigner  indulging  in  the  most  foolish  diversions 
in  their  midst  might  be  expected  to  cause  feelings 
of  annoyance.  But  the  lively  people  of  Alexan- 
dria took  in  good  part  the  antics  of  the  Roman 
general  whom  their  queen  had  introduced  to 
them.  His  volatile  humour  and  love  of  amuse- 
ment struck  a  sympathetic  chord  in  them,  and 
they  remarked  that  Antony  kept  the  tragic  mask 

163 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

for  the  Romans,  but  wore  the  comic  mask  with 
them.  Probably  Antony  did  himself  no  ill 
turn  when  he  showed  the  Alexandrians  how 
he  could  unbend.  He  gained  a  popularity  with 
them  which  we  do  not  hear  of  as  having  fallen 
to  Julius  Caesar  before  him. 

The  ancient  writers,  especially  those  who  were 
some  centuries  removed  from  the  time  of  the 
Amimetobioi,  abound  in  these  stories  about  the 
revels  in  Alexandria  under  the  presidenc}^  of 
Cleopatra  and  Antony.  They  are,  however, 
very  vague  as  to  the  date  when  the  incidents 
which  they  profess  to  record  took  place.  There 
will  be  an  opportunity  to  refer  to  the  subject 
again  in  another  chapter.  For  the  present  we 
must  leave  the  "  Inimitable  Life,"  and  return 
to  the  political  situation  which  faced  Antony 
at  the  beginning  of  the  year  following  his  asso- 
ciation of  his  fortunes  with  those  of  Cleopatra. 


164 


CHAPTER  X 

THE  BREAK  BETWEEN  CLEOPATRA  AND  ANTONY 

In  the  spring  of  the  year  40  news  reached  Alex- 
andria which  brought  to  an  end  the  follies  of 
Antony,  Cleopatra,  and  their  companions.  It 
was  necessary  for  the  Triumvir  to  quit  Egypt 
and  put  himself  once  more  in  touch  with  affairs, 
which  had  by  no  means  stood  still  while  he  had 
"  squandered  the  most  costly  of  all  treasures," 
Information  from  Italy  of  the  fall  of  Perusia  does 
not  appear  to  have  come  to  him  until  later,*  but 
he  must  have  heard  before  he  left  Alexandria 
something  about  the  struggle  waged  between  his 
brother  Lucius  and  his  colleague  Octavian ;  and 
that  the  Parthians  were  masters  of  Syria  and 
Asia  Minor  he  learnt  from  the  mouths  of  fugitives 
arriving  in  Alexandria  from  the  lost  provinces. 
The  honour  of  the  Roman  Empire  was  damaged, 
and  Antony  could  no  longer  remain  passive. 
"  With  difficulty  then,"  says  Plutarch,  "  and  like 
a  man  aroused  from  sleep  and  a  drunken  debauch, 
he  set  out  to  meet  the  Parthians  and  advanced 
as  far  as  Phoenicia." 

*  Although  L.  Antonius  was  shut  up  in  Perusia  in  the 
autumn  of  41,  Professor  Ferrero  makes  the  plausible  excuse 
that  the  annual  suspension  of  navigation  across  the  Medi- 
terranean must  have  prevented  his  brother  hearing  of  this 
until  the  following  spring,  by  which  time  Perusia  liad  been 
compelled  to  surrender. 

165 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

Antony's  first  intention  no  doubt  was  to 
organise  a  resistance  against  the  Parthian  in- 
vaders of  Rome's  eastern  provinces.  But  on 
arrival  at  Tyre  he  found  the  miHtary  situation 
hopeless  unless  he  could  bring  into  the  field  the 
legions  belonging  to  him  in  Macedonia,  Italy,  and 
Gaul.  His  forces  in  Asia  Minor  and  Syria  had 
practically  ceased  to  exist.  Moreover,  letters 
which  now  reached  him  from  Fulvia  showed  him 
the  imperative  necessity  of  delay  until  he  should 
make  certain  of  the  position  of  affairs  at  home. 
Leaving  T3n:e,  he  sailed  with  a  fleet  of  two  hundred 
ships  to  Cyprus,  Rhodes,  and  the  coast  of  Asia 
Minor.  On  his  way  he  fell  in  with  the  refugees 
flying  from  Italy  in  search  of  him,  and  learnt  for 
the  first  time  of  the  fall  of  Perusia  and  the  wreck 
of  his  cause,  at  least  temporarily,  at  Rome.  He 
was  filled  with  consternation  and  with  anger 
against  the  foolish  and  inconsiderate  zeal  of  his 
family.  While  he  had  desired  to  maintain 
peaceful  relations  with  Octavian  until  he  should 
have  settled  with  the  Parthians  and  consolidated 
his  position  in  the  eastern  half  of  the  Empire, 
Lucius  and  Fulvia  had  not  only  embroiled  him 
with  the  other  Triumvirs  but  deprived  him  of  a 
footing  in  Rome  and  cut  off  from  him  the  hope 
of  assistance  from  the  West  for  his  Parthian 
campaign.  Acting  from  different  motives  and 
neither  wishing  to  work  him  harm,  both  his  wife 
and  his  brother  had  done  Antony  a  very  bad 

i66 


CLEOPATRA    AND    ANTONY 

turn.  Lucius  Antonius  (whose  sympathy  with 
the  views  of  Marcus  was  no  more  complete  than 
that  of  Lucien  Bonaparte  with  the  views  of 
Napoleon)  ceased  henceforward  to  be  an  active 
agent  of  his  brother.  Fulvia,  however,  was  on 
her  way  to  meet  her  irate  husband,  who  left  the 
Asiatic  coast  and  sailed  to  Athens  to  receive  her 
explanations. 

From  the  sequel  it  may  be  imagined  that  the 
interview  between  husband  and  wife  was  of  a 
painful  character.  While  Antony  violently  up- 
braided her  for  her  share  in  the  ruin  of  his  affairs 
at  Rome,  it  is  impossible  to  believe  that  Fulvia 
omitted  to  speak  to  him  of  his  liaison  with 
Cleopatra,  one  of  the  chief  causes  of  her  own 
mischievous  political  activity.  If  she  had  not 
heard  of  the  "  Inimitable  Livers,"  at  least  she 
must  have  known  about  the  meeting  at  Tarsus 
and  the  intimacy  in  Syria  of  the  Roman  general 
and  the  Egyptian  queen.  On  a  temperament 
such  as  we  must  attribute  to  Fulvia  from  the 
evidence  which  the  classical  historians  have  given 
us,  the  effect  of  the  interview  at  Athens  was 
disastrous.  Her  end  was  almost  suicide.  She 
proceeded  to  Sikyon,  while  Antony  went  to  rejoin 
his  fleet  and  sail  north-westward  along  the  coast 
of  Greece.  At  Sikyon  she  was  taken  ill  and  died. 
According  to  Appian,  "  it  was  said  that  she  was 
dispirited  by  Antony's  reproaches  and  fell  sick, 
and  it  was  thought  that  she  had  become  a  willing 

167 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

victim  to  disease  on  account  of  the  anger  of 
Antony,  who  had  left  her  when  she  was  ill  and 
had  not  even  visited  her  when  he  was  going  away." 

Appian  cruelly  comments  :  "  The  death  of  this 
turbulent  woman,  who  had  stirred  up  so  disastrous 
a  war  on  account  of  her  jealousy  of  Cleopatra, 
seemed  extremely  fortunate  to  both  of  the  parties 
who  were  rid  of  her ' ' — ^her  husband's,  that  is  to  say, 
and  Octavian's.  But  he  adds :  "  Antony,  never- 
theless, was  much  saddened  by  this  event,  for  he 
considered  himself  in  some  degree  the  cause  of  it." 

Antony  had  good  reason  to  blame  himself,  for 
Fulvia,  whatever  her  faults,  was  strongly  at- 
tached to  him  and  had  done  much  for  him.  When 
he  married  her,  his  third  wife,  in  46  he  was  not 
only  penniless  but  also  out  of  favour  with  Julius 
Caesar.  Fulvia  brought  him  money  and  also 
influence,  as  being  the  widow  of  a  Caesarian 
soldier,  and  had  rescued  him  from  the  clutches  of 
Cytheris,  a  star  of  the  demi-monde  and  the  stage — 
we  might  almost  say  of  the  music-halls,  for  the 
lady  was  a  "  mime."  It  took  Fulvia  some  time 
to  overcome  the  influence  of  Cytheris,  but  having 
done  so  she  dominated  him  herself  until  he  came 
under  the  still  stronger  power  of  Cleopatra. 

Fulvia  sprang  from  a  well-to-do  provincial 
family,  her  father  being  one  Marcus  Fulvius, 
sumamed  Bambalio  ("  the  stammerer  "),  whom 
Cicero  abuses  in  his  usual  choice  fashion  in  the 
Third   Philippic   as   "a   man   of  no   account,   a 

168 


CLEOPATRA   AND    ANTONY 

contemptible  creature,"  and  brutally  ridicules 
even  for  the  impediment  in  his  speech.  When 
we  read  of  Fulvia  piercing  with  a  hairpin  the 
tongue  of  the  beheaded  orator,  we  cannot  but 
recall  what  that  tongue  had  uttered  against  her 
father  and  her  husband.  To  her  father's  wealth 
Fulvia  no  doubt  owed  her  three  marriages  into 
the  Roman  aristocracy.  Her  first  was  with 
Publius  Clodius  Pulcher,  whose  good  looks  which 
gained  him  his  last  name  were  joined  with  an 
utter  vileness  of  character.  When  Clodius  died 
in  a  political  brawl  with  another  ruffian  in  52, 
Fulvia  married  Caius  Scribonius  Curio,  the  pro- 
fligate friend  of  Antony.  Curio  died  in  battle  in 
Africa  in  46,  and  in  the  same  year  the  widow 
married  his  friend.  In  the  story  of  Antony's  life 
she  stands  out  as  a  strong-minded,  bold,  and 
ambitious  woman,  who  contributed  not  a  little  to 
spur  him  on  toward  the  chief  place  in  the  State. 
When  he  became  Triumvir,  she  attempted  to 
gain  an  influence  also  over  the  only  important 
member  of  his  pair  of  colleagues.  She  succeeded 
indeed  in  persuading  Octavian  to  wed  her  daughter 
by  Clodius.  But  he  sent  Claudia  back  to  her 
without  consummating  the  marriage,  unable  to 
tolerate  the  imperiousness  of  his  mother-in-law. 
From  this  moment  Fulvia  became  a  bitter  foe  to 
Octavian.  But  if  she  could  hate  and  be  cruel 
(and  the  tale  of  her  treatment  of  Cicero's  head  is 
the  only  definite  evidence  of  this),   she  was  at 

169  G* 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

least  capable  of  lasting  affection  toward  a  man 
who  deserved  none  too  well  of  her.  It  scarcely 
seems  just  of  Professor  Ferrero  to  speak  of  her  as 
"  unsexed  by  the  passion  for  power." 

Fulvia  bore  two  sons  to  Antony,  the  elder  of 
whom  went  to  the  University  of  Athens  (whence 
it  probabl}''  comes  that  he  is  commonly  known  by 
the  half-Greek  name  of  Antyllus,  a  seeming  con- 
traction of  Antonillus),  and  was  pvtt  to  death  by 
Octavian  in  B.C.  30  ;  while  the  yomiger,  Julus,  or 
lullus,  after  being  favourably  treated  by  Octavian 
when  he  had  become  the  Emperor  Augustus,  was 
also  put  to  death  by  him  in  B.C.  2  in  punishment 
for  an  intrigue  with  Julia,  the  notorious  daughter 
of  the  Emperor. 

The  death  of  Fulvia  removed  from  out  of 
Cleopatra's  way  a  woman  who  had  many  claims 
to  be  considered  her  peer  in  ability  and  strength  of 
character.  But  it  also  paved  the  way  for  a  recon- 
ciliation with  Octavian,  which  kept  Antony  from 
returning  to  Cleopatra  for  four  years.  When  he 
left  Fulvia  to  die  at  Sikyon,  Antony  does  not  seem 
to  have  made  up  his  mind  how  to  treat  Octavian 
and  Lepidus.  There  were  still  nearly  three  years 
to  run  of  the  triumviral  compact,  and  it  was  per- 
fectly possible  to  disown  the  action  of  Lucius 
Antonius  and  Fulvia  which  had  led  to  the 
Perusian  War.  On  the  other  hand,  among  the 
fugitives  who  had  come  to  meet  Antony  at  Athens 
was  his  mother  Julia,  who,  though  by  birth  a 

170 


CLEOPATRA    AND    ANTONY 

member  of  the  Caesar  family,  had  been  received 
with  great  courtesy  by  the  outlaw  Sextus 
Pompeius  and  had  been  assisted  by  him  on  her 
way  to  her  son.  Touched  by  his  politeness  and 
perhaps  little  inclined  to  trust  her  young  kinsman 
Octavian,  Julia  urged  her  son  to  consider  the 
question  of  an  alliance  with  Pompeius.  One  of 
the  results  of  the  dissensions  at  Rome  in  41-40 
had  been  that  Pompeius,  already  strong  enough 
to  defy  the  Government  established  after  Philippi, 
found  himself  better  off  than  ever.  Service  with 
a  man  of  his  stamp,  dashing,  adventurous,  and  no 
stickler  for  discipline,  attracted  many  weary  of 
the  condition  of  affairs  at  home,  where  food  was 
scarce  and  the  outcome  of  the  Triumvirs'  am- 
bitions obscure.  Pompeius  therefore,  who  had 
already  been  joined  by  Cassius's  old  admiral 
Murcus  with  the  ships  under  his  command,  and 
was  daily  adding  to  his  forces,  had  every  reason 
for  demanding  to  be  taken  into  account  in  the 
division  of  the  Empire  if  the  Triumvirs  could  not 
imite  to  crush  him.  Appian  charges  him  with 
lacking  wisdom  in  not  invading  Italy  while  the 
partisans  of  Antony  were  quarrelling  with 
Octavian.  The  pirate  king,  however,  must  have 
known  better  than  the  historian  writing  nearly 
two  centuries  later  what  his  chances  would  be  if 
he  abandoned  the  sea  and  assailed  by  land  a 
government  still  in  command  of  big  armies  of 
veteran  troops. 

171 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

Antony,  in  reply  to  his  mother's  suggestion  of 
an  alliance  with  Pompeius,  did  not  absolutely 
decline  to  entertain  the  idea.  On  the  contrary, 
he  expressed  his  willingness  to  consider  it  if 
Octavian  should  refuse  to  adhere  to  their  com- 
pact. In  order  to  find  out  what  were  Octavian's 
intentions,  after  leaving  Athens  he  made  for 
Corcyra  and  from  there  crossed  the  Adriatic  to  the 
Italian  coast.  He  had  with  him  still  the  two 
hundred  ships  which  he  had  brought  from  Asia, 
and  on  his  way  he  fell  in  with  Domitius  Aheno- 
barbus,  who  ever  since  Philippi  had  remained  at 
sea  with  a  portion  of  the  former  Republican  fleet. 
Ahenobarbus,  like  Sextus  Pompeius,  was  an  out- 
law, but  for  some  reason  he  had  not  made  common 
cause  with  Pompeius.  Antony  gained  him  and 
his  men  over  by  one  of  those  displays  of  courage 
which  so  endeared  him  to  his  followers.  Sailing 
to  meet  the  ex-Republicans  wth  only  five  of  his 
own  ships,  he  was  enthusiastically  received  by 
them,  and  Ahenobarbus,  willing  or  unwilling, 
could  do  nothing  but  put  himself  at  the  Triumvir's 
disposal. 

Thus  strengthened,  Antony  approached  the 
harbour  of  Brundisium.  The  garrison  there 
promptly  declined  to  allow  him  to  enter  the  town, 
saying  that  Ahenobarbus  was  a  public  enemy  and 
Antony  therefore  the  introducer  of  an  enemy. 
Antony  landed  his  troops  and  commenced  the 
siege  of  the  place,  while  sending  messages  en- 

172 


CLEOPATRA    AND   ANTONY 

couraging  Sextus  Pompeius  to  attack  Italy. 
The  alliance  desired  by  Julia  seemed  for  the 
moment  an  accomplished  fact. 

Octavian  had  been  absent  in  Gaul,  whither  he 
had  gone  to  secure,  with  bribes  and  promises,  the 
legions  on  duty  there  and  to  prevent  them  from 
being  won  over  by  Antony.  He  now  marched 
south  and,  reaching  Brundisium,  shut  up  in  turn 
the  beleaguering  forces  of  Antony.  But  when  a 
fierce  struggle  seemed  about  to  take  place, 
Octavian' s  army  demanded  a  reconciliation 
between  the  two  chiefs.  So  great  was  Antony's 
prestige  among  the  soldiery  that  even  legions 
which  looked  for  everything  to  his  adversary 
refused  to  fight  against  him  now  that  he  was 
present  in  person  in  Italy.  Octavian  was  not  in 
a  position  to  disregard  the  wishes  of  his  troops, 
and  there  was  no  alternative  but  to  seek  the 
means  of  approaching  Antony  diplomatically. 
It  was  at  this  moment  that  news  reached  Bnm- 
disium  of  the  death  of  Fulvia.  Not  only  was  a 
powerful  enemy  to  Octavian  removed,  but  there 
was  a  possibility  of  a  new  combination.  It  was 
quite  in  accordance  with  precedent  to  make  use 
of  a  matrimonial  alliance  to  bring  two  rivals 
together  in  such  a  situation.  Julius  Caesar  in 
59  had  given  his  daughter  Julia  to  Pompey. 
Octavian  himself  had  only  recently  taken  to  wife 
Scribonia,  sister  of  Lucius  Libo,  father-in-law  of 
Sextus  Pompeius,  in  the  hope  of  making  better 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

relations  possible  between  himself  and  Sextus. 
Having  a  newly  widowed  sister  on  his  hands,  he 
was  ready  to  listen  to  suggestions  of  his  friends 
that  he  should  try  to  bind  Antony  to  himself  with 
her  aid.  He  wrote  to  his  kinswoman  Julia, 
and  a  meeting  was  arranged  between  the  two 
leading  Triumvirs  at  Brundisium  in  September 
of  the  year  40. 

Thus  came  about  the  celebrated  Treaty  of 
Brundisium,  in  which  Professor  Ferrero  sees  an 
anticipation  by  three  centuries  of  the  division  of 
the  Roman  world  into  the  Empires  of  the  East  and 
the  West,  and  a  proof  of  Antony's  adherence  to 
views  which  Cleopatra  had  been  impressing  on 
him  at  Alexandria,  that  it  was  worth  while  to 
resign  aU  claims  to  the  barbarous  and  poverty- 
stricken  West  if  he  could  thereby  secure  the  rich 
and  civilised  East,  centring  round  Egypt. 
Hitherto  Antony  had  claimed  his  share  in  the 
government  of  Italy  ;  now  he  abandoned  Italy 
with  all  the  Western  possessions  of  Rome. 

It  must  be  admitted  that  if  Antony,  in  agreeing 
at  Brundisium  to  an  entirely  new  partition  of  the 
Empire  between  Octavian  and  himself  (for  the 
share  assigned  to  the  third  Triumvir  Lepidus, 
namely,  the  province  of  Roman  Africa,  was 
negligible),  was  following  ideas  instilled  into  his 
head  by  Cleopatra,  he  coupled  his  consent  with  a 
proceeding  not  at  all  in  harmony  with  the  other 
scheme    with    which    Professor    Ferrero    credits 

174 


CLEOPATRA    AND    ANTONY 

Cleopatra.  For,  instead  of  taking  advantage  of 
Fulvia's  death  to  wed  the  Queen  of  Egypt,  he 
accepted  the  offer  which  Octavian's  advisers  had 
persuaded  the  ruler  of  the  West  to  make  and  took 
to  wife  Octavia.  The  Italian  writer,  however, 
sees  in  this  a  confirmation  of  his  view  that  "Antony 
had  been  induced  to  spend  the  preceding  winter 
at  Alexandria  rather  by  his  political  plans  than 
by  his  love  for  Cleopatra,"  since,  "  when  events 
obliged  a  temporary  change  of  purpose,  he  did  not 
hesitate  to  marry  Octavia  instead  of  Cleopatra."* 
After  the  conclusion  of  the  Treaty  of  Brundi- 
sium  Antony  dropped  for  nearly  four  years  out  of 
Cleopatra's  history.  Doubtless  she  did  not  cease 
during  that  period  to  keep  herself  well  informed 
of  his  movements,  nor  to  endeavour  to  bring  back 
to  her  side  the  man  who,  like  Julius  Caesar  before 
him,  had  left  her  expecting  a  child  by  himself. 
Plutarch  preserves  a  curious  story  of  an  Egyptian 
diviner  in  Antony's  suite,  whom  it  is  reasonable  to 
look  upon  as  an  agent  of  Cleopatra.  It  seems 
that  after  Antony  went  to  Rome  with  Octavia 
and  Octavian,  he  found  much  reason  to  complain 
that,  whenever  he  indulged  in  games  of  dice, 
etcetera,  with  his  brother-in-law,  luck  invariably 
ran  against  him.  Thereupon  the  Egyptian 
diviner,  "  whether  it  was  to  please  Cleopatra  or 
in  food  faith,  spoke  freely  to  Antony,  telling  him 
that,  however  great  and  splendid  his  fortune,  it 

•  "  Greatness  and  Decline  of  Rome,"  III.  p.  256. 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

was  obscured  by  that  of  Caesar  [Octavian]  and 
advising  him  to  remove  as  far  as  possible  from 
the  young  man.  '  For  your  genius,'  he  said,  '  is 
afraid  of  Caesar's  genius,  and  although  it  stands 
proud  and  erect  when  alone  it  is  humbled  by  his 
genius  when  it  is  near  and  becomes  abashed.'  " 

Most  of  the  year  39,  following  his  agreement 
with  Octavian,  was  spent  by  Antony  at  Rome, 
where  the  Triumvirs  were  busily  engaged  in 
dealing  both  with  the  still  unsatisfied  veterans 
from  Philippi  and  with  the  gravely  discontented 
populace  of  Italy  and  its  capital,  whom  the 
blockade  successfully  maintained  by  Sextus 
Pompeius  along  the  southern  coast  of  the  penin- 
sula kept  in  a  perpetual  state  of  famine.  At 
length  so  great  was  the  force  of  public  opinion 
that  the  Triumvirs,  unable  to  see  their  way  to  deal 
with  Pompeius  by  naval  and  military  methods, 
consented  to  make  a  convention  with  him.  By 
the  Treaty  of  Misenum  the  pirate  was  officially 
recognised  by  the  rulers  of  Rome  as  worthy  of  a 
share  in  the  Empire,  being  left  in  possession^of 
Sicily  and  Sardinia,  presented  with  the  Pelo- 
ponnese  for  five  years,  and  promised  a  .consulship 
at  the  end  of  this  term,  while  his  daughter  was 
betrothed  to  Octavian's  six-year-old  nephew, 
Marcellus,  son  of  Octavia  by  her  first  husband.  At 
last,  for  the  first  time  since  45,  the  Empire  enjoyed 
domestic  peace,  and  the  rejoicings  were  general. 

Toward  the  end  of  the  year  Antony  left  Rome 

176 


CLEOPATRA    AND    ANTONY 

for  Athens,  taking  with  him  Octavia  and  their 
newly  bom  daughter  Antonia  the  elder,  after- 
wards grandmother  of  the  Emperor  'Nero,  He 
contemplated  beginning  in  the  following  spring 
that  war  against  the  Parthians  which  he  had  been 
too  weak  to  wage  when  he  left  Alexandria  in  the 
spring  of  40,  and  had  already  begun  operations 
through  his  heutenants  Bassus,  Plancus,  and  his 
new  adherent,  Ahenobarbus.  In  the  meantime 
he  was  perfectly  content  to  spend  his  winter  at 
Athens  in  the  company  of  Octavia,  "  with  whom 
he  was  very  much  in  love,  being  by  natiure  ex- 
cessively fond  of  women,"  remarks  Appian. 
Octavia,  the  only  good  woman  who  had  any 
influence  over  his  life,  had  apparently  succeeded 
in  driving  thoughts  of  Cleopatra  from  his  head. 
With  her  he  passed  a  very  different  winter  season 
from  that  of  a  year  ago  in  Alexandria.  He  lived 
the  life  of  a  Greek  gentleman,  wearing  the 
Athenian  dress,  discussing  art,  letters,  and 
philosophy  with  the  citizens,  attending  the 
lectures  at  the  University,  accepting  the  post  of 
gy^mnasiarch  and  superintending  the  games,  and 
generally  comporting  himself  with  decency. 
The  Athenians  made  much  both  of  him,  whom 
they  knew  of  old,  and  of  Octavia,  who  won  their 
hearts  at  once.  Dion  Cassius  relates  that  among 
the  honours  bestowed  upon  him  by  the  citizens 
were  the  title  of  "  the  New  Dionysos  "  and  the 
betrothal  to  him  of  their  patron  goddess  Athene  ; 

177 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

adding  that  Antony  thereon  asked  for  a  marriage 
portion  of  a  million  drachmae  (about  £40,000) — 
which  scarcely  harmonizes  with  his  usual 
behaviour  toward  Athens,  if  in  keeping  with  his 
rude  style  of  humour. 

As  it  does  not  enter  within  the  scope  of  this 
book  to  deal  with  the  career  of  Antony  except 
where  it  affects  the  life  of  Cleopatra,  we  must 
glance  very  rapidly  at  the  events  between  the  end 
of  39  and  the  beginning  of  36  B.C.  In  the  early 
summer  following  his  sojourn  with  Octavia  in 
Athens,  Antony  crossed  to  Syria  and  took  over 
the  command  against  the  Parthians  and  their 
allies  from  Ventidius  Bassus.  Bassus  had  done 
far  too  well  for  his  chief's  satisfaction,  and  was 
indeed  the  only  Roman  general  to  triumph  for  a 
success  over  the  Parthians,  inflicting  upon  them 
a  heavy  defeat,  which  was  followed  by  the  flight 
and  death  of  the  renegade  Labienus.  After  some 
unimportant  and  not  over-glorious  operations 
against  Antiochus  of  Commagene,  one  of  the 
Parthians'  vassals,  Antony  returned  to  Athens 
to  spend  his  second  winter  there  with  Octavia, 
still  with  no  apparent  thought  of  Cleopatra. 
The  term  of  the  first  Triumvirate  of  Antony, 
Octavian,  and  Lepidus  ended  on  December  31st, 
B.C.  38,  and  it  looked  at  first  as  if  its  end  would  be 
followed  by  an  open  rupture  between  the  two 
principal  Triumvirs  in  37  over  the  case  of  Sextus 
Pompeius,  with  whom  Octavian  had  quarrelled, 

178 


CLEOPATRA   AND    ANTONY 

in  violation  of  the  Treaty  of  Misenum.  After 
nearly  four  months,  howeyer,  during  which 
Antony  waited  threateningly  off  the  coast  of 
South  Italy  with  a  fleet  of  three  hundred  ships, 
a  peaceful  meeting  was  brought  about  at  Taren- 
tum  between  Antony  and  Octavian,  with  the  aid 
of  Octavia,  of  whose  devotion  to  him  her  husband 
was  glad  to  avail  himself,  whether  or  not  his  first 
ardour  for  her  had  now  cooled,  as  is  suggested  by 
his  behaviour  only  a  few  months  later  in  Corey ra. 
Octavia's  intervention  saved  the  situation.  At 
Tarentum  the  Triumvirate  was  renewed  for 
another  period  of  five  years,  beginning  from 
January  ist,  37,  and  Antony  agreed  to  abandon 
Sextus  Pompeius,  giving  his  brother-in-law  one 
hundred  and  thirty  warships  for  use  against  him, 
in  exchange  for  which  he  was  to  receive  twenty- 
one  thousand  Italian  legionaries  to  enable  him  to 
carry  the  war  against  the  Parthians  into  the 
enemy's  country.  There  appeared  now  no 
obstacle  to  prevent  either  of  the  great  rivals  from 
carrying  out  the  schemes  dear  to  his  heart. 
Octavian,  indeed,  proceeded  at  once  to  his  task  of 
making  himself  complete  master  of  the  West  by 
removing  first  Pompeius  and  then  Lepidus  out  of 
his  path.  Thanks  to  the  reinforcements  which 
he  had  received,  he  had  nothing  to  fear  with 
Antony  away.  It  must  have  been  with  feelings 
of  great  satisfaction  that  he  saw  his  brother-in- 
law  sail  from  the  Italian  coast. 

179 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE    LIAISON   RENEWED 

The  time  was  approaching  when  Antony  was 
to  fall  again  under  the  sway  from  which  the 
fiery  Fulvia  had  been  unable,  while  the  gentler 
Octavia  found  the  means  for  more  than  three 
years,  to  withdraw  him.  He  was  at  last  on  his 
way  to  take  up  the  command  in  that  invasion  of 
Parthia  which  gave  a  constitutional  excuse  for  his 
Empire  of  the  East,  otherwise  a  mere  usurpation 
of  authority  arranged  between  himself  and 
Octavian.  On  his  voyage  from  Italy  he  took 
Octavia  with  him  as  far  as  Corcyra,  where  he 
bade  her  farewell  and  left  her  to  return  home  with 
their  infant  daughter  and  the  two  boys  Antyllus 
andljulus.  The  anxiety  which  he  expressed  that 
she  should  not  expose  herself  to  danger  may  have 
been  genuine,  for  she  was  expecting  a  second 
child  by  him,  the  daughter  afterwards  known  as 
Antonia  the  younger  ;  or  it  may,  as  his  enemies 
thought,  have  been  a  pretext  for  getting  rid  of  a 
woman  of  whom  he  was  already  tired  and  setting 
himself  free  to  follow  his  inclinations.  The  point 
cannot  be  decided,  for  his  immediate  conduct  is 
ambiguous ;    but  in  either  case  he  ceased  from 

t8o 


THE    LIAISON    RENEWED 

this  moment  to  live  with  Octavia  and  saw  neither 
her  nor  Rome  again. 

On  leaving  Corcyra  Antony  made  straight  for 
Syria,  without  pausing  to  visit  Egypt.  But  as  he 
approached  Syria,  in  the  words  of  Plutarch, 
"  that  great  evil  which  had  long  slept,  the  passion 
for  Cleopatra  which  seemed  to  have  been  luUed 
and  charmed  into  oblivion  by  better  considera- 
tions, blazed  forth  again  and  recovered  strength. 
At  last,  Uke  Plato's  *  restive  and  ungovernable 
beast  in  the  human  soul,'  kicking  away  all  that 
was  good  and  wholesome,  he  sent  Fonteius  Capito 
to  fetch  Cleopatra  to  Syria." 

It  was  late  in  the  year  37  that  Cleopatra  re- 
joined the  lover  whom  she  had  not  seen  since  his 
departure  from  Alexandria  in  the  spring  of  40. 
When  his  career  separates  itself  from  hers, 
unfortunately  we  cease  to  have  more  than  the 
briefest  allusions  to  her  in  the  ancient  historians, 
and  the  archaeologists  are  unable  to  help  us  with 
any  Egyptian  records  from  which  to  fill  in  the 
blank  in  her  story.  We  know  that  as  a  result 
of  her  intercourse  with  Antony  in  Syria  and 
Alexandria  she  bore,  not  long  after  he  left  her, 
the  twins  to  whom  were  given  the  names  of 
Alexander  Helios  and  Cleopatra  Selene,  the 
Sun  and  the  Moon.  We  also  read  in  the  pages 
of  Josephus  how  she  received  a  visit  from  Herod, 
whose  flight  from  the  Parthians  brought  him  a 
fugitive    to    the    Egyptian    frontier    soon    after 

181 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

Antony's  departure  from  Alexandria.  His 
brother  Phasael  had  been  killed  by  the  invaders, 
and  Herod  himself  was  on  the  way  to  seek  from 
the  masters  of  Rome  his  own  restoration  to 
Judaea  and  his  confirmation  as  king  of  the 
territory  over  which  he  and  Phasael  had  hitherto 
jointly  ruled  as  tetrarchs.  "  He  reached  Pelu- 
sium,"  says  Josephus,  "  where  he  could  not 
obtain  a  passage  from  those  that  lay  at  anchor 
there.  So  he  had  an  interview  with  the  governors 
of  the  place.  And  they,  out  of  respect  to  the 
fame  and  dignity  of  the  man,  conducted  him  to 
Alexandria.  And  when  he  came  to  the  city  he 
was  received  by  Cleopatra  with  great  splendour, 
for  she  hoped  he  would  be  commander  of  her 
forces  in  the  expedition  which  she  was  now  about ; 
but  he  rejected  the  queen's  solicitations."* 

We  should  have  liked  to  hear  more  about  this 
meeting  of  Cleopatra  and  Herod,  even  from  the 
pen  of  Josephus,  who  is  elsewhere  violently 
hostile  to  the  queen  and  is  always  absurdly 
eulogistic  of  Herod.  They  must  have  met  before, 
for  Herod  led  one  contingent  of  the  army  which 
relieved  Julius  Caesar  from  his  siege  in  Alexandria 
in  47  ;  and  they  were  destined  to  meet  again 
and  become  bitter  enemies.  It  is  impossible  to 
test  the  assertion  of  Josephus  about  her  friendly 
treatment  of  him  now  and  her  desire  that  he 
should  become  "  commander  of  her  forces  "  in 

*  "  Jewish  Wars,"  I.  14,  2. 
182 


THE    LIAISON    RENEWED 

some  unknown  expedition.  Ptolemy  VII  had  a 
celebrated  Jewish  general,  Onias  ;  Cleopatra  III 
two  Jewish  officers,  Chelkias  and  Ananias  ;  but 
Herod,  in  spite  of  his  participation  in  the  expedi- 
tion which  accomplished  the  relief  of  Caesar,  had 
done  nothing  to  deserve  such  military  fame  as 
Josephus  would  have  us  believe  was  his  hero's. 
It  is  probable  that  Josephus  is  merely  drawing 
on  his  exceedingly  vivid  imagination  for  this 
offer  of  Cleopatra  to  Herod. 

After  Herod's  departure  in  search  of  Antony  and 
Octavian,  there  begins  a  period  of  complete 
silence  about  Cleopatra  and  about  Egypt  gener- 
ally until  Antony's  reappearance  in  the  East. 
What  was  she  doing  these  four  years  ?  As  M. 
Houssaye  remarks,  "  the  mind  refuses  to  picture 
her  in  mourning  garb,  weeping  in  the  interior  of 
her  palace  "  ;  and  we  would  rather  fancy  her 
"  continuing  her  gay  and  gorgeous  existence, 
giving  up  to  pleasure  the  time  left  to  her  by 
public  ceremonies,  audiences,  councils  of  State, 
and  conferences  with  engineers  and  architects." 
A  very  considerable  amount  of  temple-building 
and  repair  and  decoration  of  already  existing 
temples  was  carried  out  during  the  rule  of  Cleo- 
patra. The  subject  of  Cleopatra  as  a  builder  is 
mentioned  later,*  and  here  it  need  only  be  said 
that  at  no  period  in  her  reign  did  she  have  so 
much  opportunity  for  whatever  personal  attention 

•  See  p.  328. 
183 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

she  may  have  given  to  architectural  work  as 
during  her  separation  from  Antony,  although 
there  are  no  inscriptions  which  enable  us  definitely 
to  assign  any  of  her  surviving  monuments  to 
these  years. 

With  regard  to  her  foreign  policy  at  this  time 
we  are  equally  without  information.  Josephus's 
remark  about  an  intended  expedition  is  un- 
supported by  any  other  writer.  We  find  a  sub- 
sequent allusion  to  her  favour  of  the  cause  of 
Sextus  Pompeius,  but  it  is  very  vague.  Pom- 
peius  was  certainly  in  a  position  to  communicate 
with  the  Queen  of  Egypt,  being  sole  master  of 
the  Mediterranean  between  Southern  Italy  and 
the  mouths  of  the  Nile,  and  as  son  of  his  father, 
as  well  as  brother  of  Cnaeus  the  younger,  must 
naturally  have  made  some  appeal  to  Cleopatra. 
Beyond  this,  however,  it  is  impossible  to  go. 
We  are  at  liberty  to  imagine  the  queen  occupying 
herself  with  the  government  of  Egypt  by  herself 
and  the  young  Caesarion,  and  watching  anxiously 
the  movements  of  the  Roman  leaders  ;  kept  in 
touch,  it  may  be,  with  Antony's  affairs  by  the 
Egyptians  who  had  remained  with  him  after 
he  left  Alexandria, 

When  Fonteius  Capito  appeared  at  her  court 
with  a  message  from  her  lover  of  four  years  ago, 
we  hear  of  no  such  delay  on  her  part  as  she  ex- 
hibited when  she  went  to  meet  him  at  Tarsus 
in  41.     She   hastened  to  join  Antony  in  Syria. 

184 


THE    LIAISON    RENEWED 

At  Antioch  the  old  relationship  was  renewed,  and 
was  followed  by  a  most  astonishing  proceeding 
on  the  part  of  Antony.  Plutarch  says  that  on 
her  arrival  he  "  added  to  her  dominions  no  small 
or  trifling  gift,  but  Phoenicia,  Coele-Syria,  Cypnis, 
a  large  part  of  Cihcia,  and  also  that  part  of 
Judaea  which  produces  the  balsam,  and  as  much 
of  Nabathaean  Arabia  as  faces  the  Outer  Sea  " 
— the  Red  Sea,  that  is  to  say,  as  opposed  to  the 
Mediterranean.  We  know  also  that  he  struck 
coins  for  circulation  in  Egypt,  bearing  his  head 
and  the  titles  Imperator  and  Triumvir  translated 
into  Greek.  From  this  and  from  the  existence 
of  another  coin  with  Cleopatra's  head  on  one 
side,  Antony's  on  the  other,  and  an  inscription 
showing  that  it  was  issued  "  (in  the  reign)  of 
Queen  Cleopatra,  in  the  twenty-first  which  is 
also  the  sixth  year  of  the  Goddess,"  it  is  argued 
by  several  modem  writers*  that  Antony  definitely 
married  Cleopatra  at  Antioch  in  B.C.  39,  that  she 

*  Notably  Professor  Ferrero,  following  Letronne,  the  first 
exponent  of  the  argument  from  the  coins,  and  Kromayer. 
See  "  Grandeur  and  Decadence  of  Rome,"  IV.  pp.  6-8,  264-5. 
In  an  article  in  Putnam's  Magazine,  April  1909,  the  Professor 
explains  how  "  the  discovery  of  Letronne  .  .  .  finally  per- 
suades me  to  affirm  that  not  a  passion  of  love  suddenly 
reawakened  led  Antony  in  the  second  half  of  37  B.C.  to 
Antioch  to  meet  the  Queen  of  Egypt,  but  a  political  scheme 
well  thought  out.  He  meant  by  this  dynastic  marriage  to 
establish  the  Roman  protectorate  in  the  valley  of  the  Nile, 
and  to  be  able  to  dispose,  for  the  Persian  [Parthian]  campaign, 
of  the  treasures  of  the  kingdom  of  the  Ptolemies."  For  a 
more  dispassionate  consideration  of  the  arguments  see  M. 
Bouch6-Leclercq,  "  Histoire  des  Lagides,"  II.  p.  257,  n.  i. 

185 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

began  to  reckon  a  new  era  in  her  reign  because 
of  this,  and  that  his  "  no  small  or  trifling  gift  " 
was  his  wedding  present  to  her. 

With  regard  to  this  theory  of  a  marriage  be- 
tween Antony  and  Cleopatra  at  Antioch,  it  is 
extremely  improbable  that  a  general  agreement 
of  opinion  can  ever  be  obtained.  It  is  too  much 
to  hope  for  fresh  evidence  from  ancient  sources. 
Ingeniously  though  the  case  for  the  marriage  has 
been  argued,  the  absence  of  allusion  to  such  an 
event  in  the  classical  writers  contemporary  with 
or  subsequent  to  the  age  of  Cleopatra,  Antony, 
and  Octavian,  is  too  extraordinary  to  be  passed 
over  lightly.  Had  Antony  gone  straight  from 
the  arms  of  his  legal  wife,  sister  of  the  great 
colleague  with  whom  he  had  just  concluded  a 
five-years'  treaty,  leaving  her  with  two  little 
daughters  by  him,  and  without  waiting  even 
for  the  lapse  of  a  few  months  contracted  a 
marriage  which  in  Roman  eyes  was  bigamous 
and  intolerable,  is  it  possible  that  we  should  not 
find  this  monstrous  action  made  one  of  the  chief 
charges  against  him  by  the  adherents  of  Octavian, 
in  fact  by  all  Roman  writers  ?  But  Antony,  it 
may  be  said,  did  not  inform  Rome  of  what  he 
had  done.  News,  however,  even  in  those  days 
travelled  across  the  Mediterranean,  especially 
if  it  should  be  news  of  a  bigamous  marriage 
entered  upon  by  one  of  the  two  leading  men  of 
the    Roman    world    with    an    Egyptian    queen. 

i86 


THE    LIAISON    RENEWED 

Antony  did  not  lack  enemies  in  Syria,  and  even 
indifferent  persons  would  not  be  likely  to  keep 
silence  about  so  startling  a  piece  of  scandal.* 
Had  this  ceremony  at  Antioch  taken  place,  it 
is  incredible  that  events  should  have  taken  the 
slow  course  which  they  did  between  Antony's 
arrival  in  Syria  and  the  outbreak  of  the  war 
which  led  to  the  battle  of  Actium. 

But  for  the  existence  of  the  coins  it  is  certain 
that  no  one  would  attempt  to  demonstrate  a 
marriage  between  Antony  and  Cleopatra  in 
B.C.  37  ;  and  all  that  the  really  important  coin 
proves  is  that  Cleopatra  began  to  reckon  a  new 
era  in  the  fifteenth  year  of  her  reign,  as  indeed 
Porphyry  too  states.  This  she  might  well  do 
as  having  become  in  the  fifteenth  year  queen  of 
a  greatly  enlarged  kingdom.  The  presence  of 
Antony's  head  on  a  coin  issued  five  years  later, 
with  the  double  era  on  it,  is  also  natural,  seeing 
that  in  b.c.  32  there  is  no  doubt  he  considered 
himself  her  husband.  What  we  do  not  find  is  a 
coin  of  "^y  with  the  heads  of  Antony  and  Cleopatra 
and  the  double  era.     Antony's  coins  with  the 

*  Professor  Ferrero,  indeed,  says  that  "  Octavian  must 
have  been  deeply  vexed  when  he  heard  of  this  strange 
political  marriage  "  ("  Grandeur  and  Decadence  of  Rome," 
IV.  p.  8).  True,  he  must  ;  and  are  we  to  believe  that  none 
of  the  Augustan  historians  even  mentioned  the  fact  ?  As 
far  as  the  question  of  secrecy  is  concerned.  Professor  Ferrero 
sajrs  that  "  Antony  married  Cleopatra  with  all  the  dynastic 
ceremonies  of  Egypt"  (article  in  Putnam's  Magazine). 
The  argument  from  the  coins,  moreover,  involves  publicity 
of  the  marriage  to  prove  which  their  aid  is  invoked. 

187 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

Greek  versions  of  his  Roman  titles,  whatever 
they  may  indicate,  assuredly  do  not  show  him 
claiming  to  be  King  of  Egypt  and  husband  of 
Egypt's  Queen. 

Nevertheless,  if  Antony  did  not  actually  venture 
upon  a  step  which  would  have  cut  him  off  morally 
from  all  his  countrjnuen,  by  marrying  a  second 
wife  while  one  was  still  living  unrepudiated  by 
him,  he  did  not  hesitate  to  acknowledge  as  his 
the  twin  children  whom  Cleopatra  had  born 
after  his  parting  from  her  at  Alexandria,  and, 
according  to  Plutarch,  justified  himself  by  an 
allusion  to  his  ancestor  Hercules,  whose  offspring 
were  not  all  from  one  mother.  We  do  not  know 
what  justification,  if  any,  he  attempted  of  his 
donations  to  the  mother  of  Alexander  Helios 
and  Cleopatra  Selene.  By  his  gifts  now  Antony 
was  indeed  restoring  to  Egypt  territory  which 
had  been  hers  in  the  reign  of  Ptolemy  III  Euer- 
getes  ;  but  in  the  interval  it  had  all  fallen  under 
the  power  of  Rome.  He  might  have  pleaded, 
perhaps,  the  example  of  Julius  Caesar,  if  it  is 
true  that  the  Dictator  temporarily  gave  back 
Cyprus  to  Arsinoe  and  Ptolemy  XV,  and  the 
example  in  any  case  was  an  evil  one. 

It  is  probable  that  Cleopatra,  finding  Antony 
in  so  generous  a  mood,  wished  him  to  add  to 
her  dominions  all  of  Syria  which  had  formerly 
been  Egyptian  :  the  portion  known  as  Coele- 
Syria    before    the    Roman    conquest,    including 


THE   LIAISON    RENEWED 

both  Phoenicia  and  Judaea.  But  while  Antony 
presented  her  with  Phoenicia  as  well  as  the  now- 
narrowed  Coele-Syria,  he  was  disinclined  to  dis- 
possess, even  in  her  favour,  his  cunning  and 
wealthy  friend  Herod.  The  Roman  Senate  at 
the  desire  of  himself  and  Octavian  had  formally 
recognised  Herod  as  King  of  Judaea,  and  his 
deputy  in  Syria  proper,  Sosius,  had  restored  him 
to  the  throne,  storming  Jerusalem  with  Herod 
one  Sabbath  day  in  July  37,  and  putting  to  death 
Antigonus,  last  of  the  Asmonaean  dynasty  and 
nominee  of  the  Parthians.  Antony  therefore 
made  a  compromise.  The  Egyptian  queen 
appears  to  have  coveted  particularly  the  perfume- 
producing  districts  of  Judaea  and  Arabia.  Her 
country  had  always  been  renowned  both  for  the 
production  of  sweet-scented  oils  and  aromatic 
substances  and  for  the  importation  of  them  from 
abroad,  from  Syria,  Ethiopia,  Arabia,  from  "  the 
country  of  the  Troglodytes,"  and  from  India  ; 
and  under  the  Ptolemies  they  formed  a  royal 
monopoly  of  enormous  value.  Cleopatra,  most 
luxurious  of  the  Lagidae  and  a  woman  devoted  to 
all  the  arts  of  beauty,  was  eager  to  make  herself 
mistress  of  the  celebrated  gardens  at  Jericho, 
where  the  balsam  grew,  and  of  similar  rich  dis- 
tricts in  the  territory  of  the  Nabathaean  Arabs, 
lying  between  the  Dead  Sea  and  the  north- 
eastern end  of  the  Red  Sea.  To  gratify  her 
Antony  assigned  to  her  these  gardens,  while 
189 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

leaving  the  Kings  Herod  and  Malchus  in  posses- 
sion of  the  rest  of  their  realms.  We  also  hear  of 
cedar-forests  at  Amaxia,  in  the  portion  of  Cilicia 
which  Antony  transferred  to  her. 

Already  Cleopatra  had  good  reason  for  con- 
gratulating herself  upon  the  foresight  which  led 
her  to  look  to  Antony  as  a  successor  to  Julius 
Caesar  for  the  partner  in  her  ambitious  schemes 
of  securing  her  kingdom  from  the  menace  of 
annexation  and  restoring  the  glories  of  her  most 
successful  predecessors.  She  had  to  pay  a  price, 
it  is  true,  and  not  only  with  the  favours  of  her 
person.  She  was  rich  as  well  as  beautiful. 
Therefore  in  return  for  his  "  profuse  gifts  which  " 
(we  are  not  surprised  to  read  in  Plutarch)  "  much 
vexed  the  Romans,"  Antony  exacted  from  her 
an  ample  contribution  to  the  cost  of  his  expedi- 
tion into  Parthia,  for  which  ever  since  he  had 
taken  the  command  out  of  the  hands  of  Bassus 
in  38  his  subordinates  had  been  preparing  under 
his  direction,  and  for  which  he  had  made  the 
exchange  of  forces  with  Octavian  at  Tarentum. 
Minor  princes  such  as  Herod  no  doubt  paid  their 
shares,  but  the  one  purse  to  which  it  was  essential 
to  have  access  was  that  of  Cleopatra.  So,  while 
we  may  not  be  prepared  to  accept  the  story  of 
Antony's  diplomatic  marriage  to  secure  a  wealthy 
ally  against  the  Parthians,  we  must  allow  that 
Antony  mingled  passion  and  calculation  in  his 
treatment  of  Cleopatra  now.     Full  insight  into 

190 


THE    LIAISON    RENEWED 

the  workings  of  his  mind  we  cannot  hope  to  get, 
and  we  must  beware  of  making  him  too  subtle. 
All  that  we  know  of  his  character  indicates  that 
he  was  essentially  a  man  who  took  short  views. 
Having  made  his  astonishing  rearrangement  of 
the  map  of  the  East,  Antony  started  for  Lesser 
Armenia,  whence  he  proposed  to  commence  his 
aggressive  movement  against  Parthia.  Cleo- 
patra accompanied  him  as  far  as  the  river 
Euphrates,  where  she  bade  him  farewell  and  set 
off  in  the  direction  of  Eg^^pt,  travelling  overland. 
On  her  way  she  paid  a  visit  to  Herod.  "  She 
went  into  Judaea  by  Apamea  and  Damascus," 
writes  Josephus  in  his  "  Jewish  Wars."  "  Then 
did  Herod  appease  her  iU-will  toward  him  by 
large  presents  and  also  hired  from  her  those 
places  which  had  been  torn  away  from  his  king- 
dom, at  a  yearly  rent  of  two  hundred  talents. 
He  conducted  her  also  as  far  as  Pelusium  and 
paid  her  all  the  court  possible."  In  his  "  Anti- 
quities of  the  Jews  "  Josephus  gives  a  much  more 
lurid  account  of  this  meeting  between  Cleopatra 
and  Herod,  representing  her  as  openly  and  shame- 
lessly attempting  to  seduce  the  virtuous  king. 
"  And  perhaps  she  had  some  passion  for  him, 
or  else  (as  is  more  probable)  she  laid  a  treacherous 
snare  for  him  if  adulterous  intercourse  with  him 
should  come  about."  But  Herod,  continues 
Josephus,  had  long  borne  no  goodwill  toward 
Cleopatra  and  now  refused  to  comply  with  her 

191 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

proposals.  He  conceived  the  idea  of  putting  her 
to  death  and  called  together  a  councU  of  his 
friends,  to  whom  he  unfolded  his  plan.  The 
friends,  however,  scared  at  the  suggestion, 
succeeded  in  restraining  him  through  fear  of 
the  consequences.  So  he  "  paid  court  to  Cleo- 
patra and  conducted  her  on  her  way  to  Egypt." 

The  two  accounts  of  Josephus,*  if  not  contra- 
dictor}^  give  very  different  impressions  of  this 
encounter  between  two  great  intriguers ;  and  it 
is  very  much  to  be  regretted  that  we  have  no 
allusion  to  the  incident  elsewhere  than  in  the  pages 
of  this  most  prejudiced  and  untrustworthy 
historian.  No  one  would  have  a  right  to  condemn 
the  worst  of  queens,  even  as  bad  a  woman  as 
the  partisans  of  her  enemy  Octavian  made  her 
out  to  be,  on  such  unsupported  statements  as 
that  of  the  writer  who  could  make  a  hero  of  Herod 
and  display  such  inability  as  Josephus  to  look  on 
any  character  or  event  without  the  narrowest 
race-prejudice. 

Whether  or  not  she  actually  ran  any  risk  of 
death  at  the  hands  of  Herod  (and  Josephus  is 
scarcely  likely,  perhaps,  to  have  invented  this 
portion  of  his  tale,  while  we  hear  of  Herod  later 
trying  to  persuade  Antony  to  take  the  step  of 
which  he  himself  was  afraid),  Cleopatra  reached 
her  kingdom    unscathed ;    and    once   again    a 

*  "  Jewish  Wars,"  I.   i8,  5  ;    "  Antiquities  of  the  Jews," 
XV.  4.  2. 

192 


THE    LIAISON    RENEWED 

period  of  obscurity,  though  happily  in  the  present 
case  only  a  short  period,  occurs  in  her  history. 
It  is  to  this  period  that  we  must  assign  the  birth 
of  Ptolemy,  her  youngest  child  by  Antony. 

It  is  toward  the  end  of  the  winter  after  she 
had  left  Syria  for  Alexandria  that  we  learn  how 
Cleopatra  received  an  urgent  appeal  from  Antony 
to  meet  him  on  his  way  back  from  Parthia.  His 
news  was  of  the  worst.  With  an  army  of  not 
far  short  of  one  hundred  thousand  men  he  had 
accomplished  little  bej-ond  anticipating  Napo- 
leon's ruinous  march  with  the  Grand  Army 
into  and  out  of  Russia.  Starting  late  in  the 
summer  of  36,  instead  of  going  into  winter  quar- 
ters in  Armenia  he  had  attempted  to  reach 
Phraata,  the  capital  of  the  Median  vassals  of  the 
Parthian  kings,,  before  the  season  became  too 
severe  for  military  operations.  Hastening  with 
the  bulk  of  his  army  ahead  of  his  siege-train, 
he  allowed  the  latter  to  faU  into  the  hands  of 
those  Cossacks  of  the  Roman  world,  the  Median 
and  Parthian  mounted  archers,  and  arrived  at 
Phraata  without  any  means  of  besieging  the  city 
effectually.  Nothing  remained  but  to  retreat 
through  Armenia,  assailed  alike  by  a  relentless 
enemy  and  by  unmerciful  weather.  The  Ar- 
menian king,  Artavasdes,  on  whose  help  he  had 
relied,  alter  urging  him  on  against  his  own  name- 
sake, Artavasdes,  King  of  Media  Atropatene,  had 
proved  treacherous.     While  the  Median  had  lent 

193  7 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

vigorous  aid  to  the  Parthians,  the  Armenian  had 
left  Antony  in  the  lurch.  At  such  a  crisis 
Antony  appeared  at  his  best.  In  the  course  of 
twenty-seven  days  he  persuaded  his  men  to  fight 
eighteen  battles,  and  finally  he  brought  them, 
like  Xenophon's  heroic  Ten  Thousand  (whom, 
according  to  Plutarch,  he  often  recalled  to 
memory),  down  from  the  Armenian  highlands  to 
the  sea.  The  strength  of  his  main  army  was 
said  to  have  been  reduced  from  seventy  to  thirty- 
eight  thousand.  The  extent  of  the  disaster  was 
doubtless  exaggerated  by  the  ancient  writers, 
taking  their  cue  from  the  Augustan  historian 
Dellius,  the  same  man  whom  we  have  already 
met  as  Antony's  messenger  to  Cleopatra  in 
Chapter  VIII  ;  for  Dellius  after  his  desertion  of 
Antony  before  Actium  was  not  likely  to  have 
lost  an  opportunity  of  pleasing  his  new  master 
by  depreciating  his  former  patron  and  friend.* 

Nevertheless,  it  was  with  a  mere  wreck  of  his 
Grand  Army  that  Antony  reached  the  Phoenician 
coast.  The  survivors  of  his  forces  were  in  rags, 
and  he  was  without  money  to  pay  them.  He 
sent  at  once  for  Cleopatra.  Ancient  opinion 
attributes  Antony's  undue  precipitation  in  march- 
ing on  Phraata  to  his  desire  to  rejoin  Cleopatra 
speedily,  which  may  be  admitted  to  be  absurd. 

*  For  a  defence  of  Antony's  conduct  of  the  winter  campaign 
of  36-5  the  reader  may  be  referred  to  Professor  Ferrero's 
fourth  volume. 

194 


THE    LIAISON    RENEWED 

StiU  it  can  hardly  have  been  only  the  Queen  of 
Egypt,  with  her  enormous  wealth,  whom  Antony 
wished  to  see  now  after  his  arrival  in  Phoenicia. 
He  had  a  personal  need  of  her  society,  and  there 
is  an  air  of  reality  about  Plutarch's  description 
of  his  state  of  mind.  "  As  she  was  slow  in  com- 
ing, he  became  imeasy  and  restless,  soon  giving 
way  to  drunkenness,  yet  unable  to  sit  long  at 
table  ;  and  while  his  companions  were  drinking 
he  would  often  spring  up  to  look  out,  until  Cleo- 
patra arrived  by  sea."  She  joined  him  at  Leuke 
Kome,  the  "  "White  Village "  lying  between 
Sidon  and  the  Modem  Beirut,  bringing  with  her 
clothing  and  supplies  for  the  troops. 

After  making  a  distribution  of  clothes  and 
money  (he  could  give  no  more  than  about  thirty 
shillings  apiece)  among  his  men,  and  putting 
Munatius  Plancus  in  command  of  the  army  in 
Syria,  Antony  retired  with  Cleopatra  to  Alex- 
andria until  it  should  be  time  for  him  to  renew 
the  war  against  Parthia.  The  blow  which  he 
had  received  was  heavy,  and  placed  him  very 
unfavourably  as  compared  with  Octavian,  who, 
through  the  abihty  of  his  subordinates  and 
certainly  not  owing  to  his  own  military  capacity, 
which  was  small,  had  strengthened  his  position 
wonderfully  during  36.  Sextus  Pompeius  had 
been  defeated  and  sent  flying  from  Sicily  in 
August,  and  in  September  Lepidus,  after  a  brief 
and  futile  struggle  against  Octavian's  domination, 

195 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

had  given  up  his  share  in  the  Triumvirate  and 
retired  into  private  life,  leaving  his  conqueror 
to  add  the  province  of  Africa  to  his  portion  of  the 
Empire.  This  annexation  of  an  extra  province 
was  later  made  a  ground  of  complaint  by  Antony 
against  Octavian. 

The  eviction  of  Sextus  Pompeius  from  his 
temporary  kingdom  in  Sicily  had  another  dis- 
advantage for  Antony  beside  strengthening  his 
rival.  The  dispossessed  chieftain  fled  east,  and 
coming  to  Asia  Minor  began  to  make  preparations, 
ostensibly  to  attack  Octavian.  He  sent  friendly 
messages  to  Antony,  but  declined  to  accept  an 
invitation  to  visit  Alexandria.  Neither  party 
could  trust  the  other.  Sextus  had  good  reason 
to  remember  Egypt,  for  he  had  been  an  ej'e- 
witness  of  his  father's  murder  there  twelve 
3'^ears  before.  Antony  on  his  side  had  little 
inducement  to  believe  in  the  good  faith  of  a  man 
who  had  spent  years  as  an  outlaw,  living  on  the 
plunder  of  his  fellow-countrymen ;  and  even 
while  the  envoys  from  Sextus  were  in  Alexandria 
he  discovered  proofs  of  secret  negotiations  between 
their  master  and  the  Parthians.  Emboldened 
perhaps  by  the  fact  that  Antony  took  no  steps  to 
punish  him  for  this  treachery,  Sextus  began  to 
scheme  against  Domitius  Ahenobarbus,  the  chief - 
in-command  in  the  province  of  Asia.'  Antony's 
lieutenants  were  not  as  forgiving  or  as  careless 
as  he  was.     A  price  was  put  upon  the  head  of 

196 


THE    LIAISON    RENEWED 

Sextus,  and  he  was  pursued  until  he  fell  into  the 
hands  of  Titius  in  Phrygia.  By  him  he  was 
carried  to  Miletus  and  there  put  to  death,  thus 
suffering  a  fate  not  dissimilar  from  that  of  his 
father  and  his  brother. 

The  responsibility  for  the  death  of  the  last  of 
the  Pompeii  was  disputed.  Titius,  after  he  had 
deserted  Antony  for  Octavian,  found  himself 
very  unpopular  in  Rome  for  having  carried  out 
the  execution  ;  but  he  could  plead  that  he  was 
only  a  subordinate.  "  Some  say  that  Plancus 
and  not  Antony  gave  the  order,"  remarks  Appian, 
"  others  that  it  was  written  by  Plancus  with 
Antony's  knowledge,  the  latter  being  ashamed  to 
write  it  on  account  of  the  name  Pompeius  and 
because  Cleopatra  was  favourable  to  him  [Sextus] 
on  account  of  Pompey  the  Great.  Still  others 
think  that  Plancus,  being  aware  of  the  facts, 
took  upon  himself  to  give  the  order  as  a  matter 
of  precaution,  fearing  lest  the  co-operation  of 
Cleopatra  with  Pompeius  should  breed  dissension 
between  Antony  and  Caesar  [Octavian]." 

Thus  everything  conspired  to  make  the  ruin 
and  death  of  Sextus  Pompeius  profitable  to  Octa- 
vian and  harmful  to  Antony.  The  expulsion  of 
the  pirate  king  from  Sicily  removed  from  Rome 
the  pressure  of  the  food-famine  under  which  the 
city  had  been  labouring  for  many  years  except 
in  the  brief  intermission  of  the  Treaty  of  Misenum, 
and  helped  Octavian  greatly  in  his  attempt  to 

197 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

win  favour  from  a  populace  which  had  hitherto 
always  eyed  him  askance  and  liked  him  least 
of  the  Triumvirs.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
shameful  end  of  the  last  of  a  great  family,  a  man 
not  in  himself  unpopular  though  the  cause  of 
much  suffering  to  his  country,  brought  obloquy 
on  Antony,  in  whose  dominions  it  occurred. 

We  hear  little  as  to  how  Antony  spent  the  time 
with  Cleopatra  in  Alexandria  between  his  return 
from  his  first  unsuccessful  Parthian  campaign 
and  his  start  on  a  second  expedition.  Political 
affairs  must  have  engaged  most  of  his  attention, 
for  we  are  not  told  of  further  revels  at  this  period. 
There  was  a  very  difficult  task  waiting  to  be 
performed,  and  no  such  failure  as  the  march  on 
Phraata  could  be  risked  again.  While  the  prepar- 
ations were  on  foot  for  the  new  campaign  there 
came  to  Alexandria  a  messenger  with  news  of 
great  importance,  Polemon,  Antony's  nominee  to 
the  throne  of  Pontus,  whom  he  had  been  obliged 
to  leave  a  prisoner  in  the  hands  of  the  Parthians 
when  making  his  disastrous  retreat.  Polemon 
announced  that  the  Median  Artavasdes  had  fallen 
out  with  the  Parthians  over  the  division  of  the 
spoil  left  behind  by  the  Romans  and  was  now 
willing  to  join  Antony  in  a  war  against  his  former 
allies.  Antony  gladly  accepted  the  offer,  and  in 
order  to  secure  his  advance  toward  Parthia  still 
further  sent  an  invitation  to  the  other  Artavasdes 
to  come  to  Alexandria.     He  invited  him  "  as  a 

198 


THE    LIAISON    RENEWED 

friend,"  according  to  Dion  Cassius ;  but  the 
Armenian  knew  better  than  to  trust  himself  to 
the  hospitahty  of  a  man  whom  he  had  betrayed 
and  all  but  ruined.  He  preferred  to  take  the  risk 
of  war  rather  than  the  friendship  which  was 
offered  him  at  Alexandria. 

Without  waiting  any  longer,  therefore,  Antony 
set  out  for  Syria,  taking  with  him  Cleopatra.  If 
it  was  her  idea  to  accompany  him,  events  proved 
her  wisdom.  When  he  reached  Syria  he  received 
a  letter  from  his  lawful  wife  stating  that  she  had 
started  from  Rome  to  meet  him.  The  faithful 
Octavia,  although  she  cannot  have  been  ignorant 
of  the  fact  that  Antony  had  returned  to  the  arms 
of  Cleopatra,  had  been  so  moved  by  the  news  of 
his  misfortunes  in  Armenia  that  she  had  deter- 
mined to  do  what  she  could  to  help  him  to  retrieve 
his  losses.  She  had  begged  her  brother  to  allow  her 
to  leave  Rome,  and  Octavian  had  consented  "  as 
most  say,  not  with  the  design  of  pleasing  her,  but 
in  order  that  if  she  were  grievously  insulted  and 
neglected  he  might  have  a  fair  excuse  for  war."* 
Taking  with  her  not  only  money  and  clothing  for 
his  troops  but  also  two  thousand  picked  soldiers 
to  reinforce  him,  she  made  for  Athens,  whither 
she  perhaps  hoped  that  her  husband  would  come 
to  meet  her,  if  only  in  remembrance  of  the  time 
which  they  had  spent  there  together  in  38  and  37. 
Had  she  pressed  on  at  once  to  Syria,  who  can  say 

♦  Plutarch,  "  Antony,"  53. 
199 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

what  would  have  happened  ?  But  Antony  was 
by  no  means  prepared  to  see  an  encounter  between 
Octavia  and  Cleopatra.  He  wrote  to  his  wife 
ordering  her  to  stay  at  Athens,  as  he  was  going 
eastward.  Octavia  stopped  at  Athens  but  wrote 
to  Antony  again,  asking  whither  he  wished  her 
to  send  what  she  was  bringing  him.  The  letter 
was  entrusted  to  a  certain  Niger,  a  friend  of 
Antony,  who  had  the  courage  to  speak  on  her 
behalf  and  tell  him  how  good  a  woman  he  was 
wronging.  Cleopatra  grew  alarmed  at  Octavia' s 
bid  for  control  over  Antony,  whom,  knowing  his 
disposition,  she  dared  not  see  exposed  to  the 
danger  of  a  meeting  with  his  wife.  She  therefore 
had  recourse  to  a  ruse  which  is  thus  described  by 
Plutarch  : 

"  She  pretended  to  be  desperately  in  love  with 
Antony  and  wasted  her  body  by  spare  diet  ;  and 
she  assumed  an  expression  of  strong  passion  when 
he  approached  her  and  one  of  sorrow  and  de- 
pression when  he  went  away.  She  contrived  also 
to  be  seen  often  in  tears,  which  she  would  wipe 
away  and  affect  to  conceal,  as  if  she  did  not  wish 
Antony  to  see  them.  .  .  .  Her  friends,  too,  were 
busy  on  her  behalf,  accusing  Antony  of  hardness 
of  heart,  for  he  was  causing  the  death  of  a  woman 
who  was  devoted  to  him  only.  Octavia,  they 
said,  came  to  him  in  her  brother's  interest  and 
enjoyed  the  advantages  of  the  name  of  his  wife  ; 
while  Cleopatra,  queen  over  so  many  people,  was 

200 


THE    LIAISON    RENEWED 

only  called  the  lover  of  Antony — a  title  which 
she  did  not  refuse  nor  disdain  as  long  as  she  might 
see  him  and  live  with  him.  But  if  she  were  driven 
away  from  him  she  would  die."* 

Cleopatra  succeeded  in  outbidding  Octavia. 
Antony  sent  to  his  wife  a  command  to  return  to 
Rome.  She  went  back  and,  refusing  to  take  her 
brother's  advice  that  she  should  leave  Antony  s  ^ 
house  there  in  token  of  a  definite  separation  from 
him,  continued  to  live  as  before,  looking  after  the 
upbringing  not  only  of  her  own  daughters  but  also 
of  Antony's  sons  by  Fulvia.  "  Thus  she  un- 
intentionaJly  harmed  Antony,"  comments  Plu- 
tarch, "  since  he  was  hated  for  doing  wrong  to 
such  a  woman."  Antony  in  the  meanwhile, 
relieved  of  the  fear  of  an  encounter  with  his  wife, 
now  found  that  the  season  was  too  far  advanced 
for  any  expedition  that  year  and  decided  to 
return  to  Alexandria  with  Cleopatra  and  wait  for 
the  following  spring.  His  only  act  in  preparation 
for  the  coming  war  was  to  betroth  Alexander 
Helios  to  the  daughter  of  the  Armenian  Arta- 
vasdes,  whom  he  had  not  yet  made  up  his  mind 

•  In  connection  with  this  passage  from  Plutarch,  it  is 
clear  that,  if  the  theory  be  accepted  that  Antony  and  Cleopatra 
were  actually  married  in  Antioch  at  the  end  of  B.C.  37,  we 
should  be  obliged  to  reject  the  Greek  writer's  account  of 
this  struggle  between  Cleopatra  and  Octavia  in  35.  His- 
torians, in  support  of  a  theory,  however,  are  wont  to  be 
hard-hearted  even  toward  the  most  conscientious  of  their 
predecessors,  and  it  does  not  appear  to  grieve  the  advocates 
of  the  Antioch  marriage  that  they  are  compelled  to  deny 
the  truth  of  so  much  of  Plutarch's  information. 

201  7* 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

to  treat  as  an  enemy  ;   or,  at  least,  had  not  yet 
in  his  power. 

Early  in  the  spring  of  34  he  was  back  again  in 
S3n:ia.  But  instead  of  attacking  the  Parthians  he 
marched  into  Armenia,  seized  the  capital 
Artaxata,  and  took  prisoners  Artavasdes  and  his 
family.  Then  leaving  a  garrison  sufficiently 
large  to  hold  the  country  he  turned  back  toward 
Egypt.  With  a  view  to  binding  the  alliance 
which  he  had  contracted  with  Media  in  the 
previous  year  he  betrothed  Alexander  Helios  to 
lotapa,  daughter  of  the  other  Artavasdes,  in 
place  of  the  child  whom  he  now  had  among  his 
captives. 


202 


CHAPTER  XII 

THE   EMPIRE    OF   THE   EAST 

Although  Antony's  conquest  of  Armenia  had 
been  neither  arduous  nor  very  glorious,  since 
the  king  had  not  been  prepared  to  resist  him,  he 
determined  to  celebrate  it  in  a  way  that  should  be 
memorable.  He  was  returning  from  a  newly 
vanquished  country,  laden  with  abundant  spoil 
and  accompanied  by  trains  of  captives,  including 
the  whole  of  the  royal  family.  He  had  therefore 
all  the  materials  for  a  triumph  such  as  a  success- 
ful Roman  general  could  claim — except  the  city 
in  which  to  celebrate  it.  This  was  in  the  hands 
of  a  rival  who  was  by  no  means  likely  to  listen 
favourably  to  any  request  coming  from  a  man 
who  not  only  disputed  the  mastery  of  the  Roman 
world  with  him  but  had  also  insulted  him  un- 
pardonably  by  his  treatment  of  his  sister.  If 
Antony  required  a  triumphal  procession,  he  must 
have  it  somewhere  else  than  in  Rome.  No 
Roman  had  ever  triumphed  elsewhere.  Indeed 
the  idea  had  been  deemed  unthinkable.  But  no 
Roman,  also,  had  stood  in  the  position  of 
Antony  ;  and  in  unprecedented  circumstances  it 
was    necessary   to    create    and    not    wait    for 

203 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

precedents,  Alexandria  now  was  the  virtual 
capital  of  the  eastern  half  of  the  Roman  Empire,  a 
city  superior  to  Rome  itself  in  magnificence,  and 
clearly  the  only  possible  substitute  for  Rome  as  the 
scene  of  the  procession  which  Antony  intended  to 
accompany  his  car.  He  would  ride,  therefore, 
through  the  streets  of  Alexandria,  defying  both 
Rome  and  Octavian. 

We  need  not  believe  that  in  deciding  to  act 
thus  Antony  was  consciously  setting  up  an  Empire 
of  the  East  in  opposition  to  the  already  existing 
Empire  of  the  West  which  had  developed  itself 
out  of  the  Roman  Republic.  As  he  showed  later, 
when  he  attempted  to  submit  his  astounding  acts 
for  ratification  by  the  Senate,  he  continued  to 
acknowledge  the  supremacy  of  Rome.  He  cannot 
have  abandoned  the  idea  of  returning  to  his 
native  land  after  the  conquest  of  the  Parthians  as 
Sulla  had  returned  after  conquering  Mithridates. 
What  we  know  of  Antony's  character  impels  us  to 
attribute  his  Alexandrian  triumph  much  rather 
to  his  love  of  gorgeous  display,  in  the  gratification 
of  which  Cleopatra  had  given  him  many  lessons, 
than  to  the  promptings  of  far-seeing  statesman- 
ship. Antony  founded  for  a  few  years,  it  is  true, 
an  Eastern  Empire  with  its  capital  at  Alexandria  ; 
but  he  did  so,  not  because  he  was  a  constructive 
genius,  ahead  of  his  times,  but  because  he  was  a 
successful  soldier  carried  away  by  the  force  of 
events  and  by  an  ambition  scarcely  any  longer 

204 


THE   EMPIRE   OF    THE    EAST 

sane.  Although  the  comparison  is  a  very  super- 
ficial one,  the  French  critic  who  called  Antony 
"  a  Roman  Boulanger  "  is  nearer  to  the  truth 
than  those  who  would  make  him  a  great  states- 
man. 

The  Armenian  triumph,  as  it  travelled  along 
the  splendid  wide  Canopic  Way,  crowded  with 
sightseers  and  gaily  decorated,  toward  the  huge 
temple  of  Serapis  at  the  western  end  of  Alexandria, 
must  have  been  a  worthy  rival  to  almost  any  that 
had  passed  along  the  Via  Sacra  to  the  temple  of 
Jupiter  on  the  Capitoline  Hill  at  Rome.  In  his 
capacity  of  victorious  Imperator,  Antony  rode  in 
the  customary  car  drawn  by  four  white  horses. 
Before  him  on  foot  went  King  Artavasdes,  loaded 
with  golden  chains  ("  so  that  nothing  might  be 
lacking  to  his  honours,"  remarks  the  Roman 
historian  Velleius  Paterculus),  with  his  wife 
and  sons.  Behind  came  long  strings  of  other 
Armenian  captives,  chariots  carr3nng  pictorial 
representations  of  the  conquered  country  or 
loaded  with  booty,  and  deputations  from  the 
subject  cities  bearing  golden  crowns  voted  to  the 
victorious  general.  The  escort  consisted  of  Roman 
legions,  with  their  shields  perhaps  already  in- 
scribed with  the  C  in  honour  of  Cleopatra, 
marching  under  their  eagles  to  the  sound  of  their 
brazen  trumpets,  and  the  troops  of  auxiliary 
cavalry  and  Oriental  allies,  drawn  from  all  parts 
of  the  Levant,  that  went  to  make  up  the  motley 

205 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

army  of  Antony.  The  procession  moved  slowly 
westward  from  the  royal  quarter  through 
Rhakotis  until  it  came  to  the  temple  of  the  god 
who  replaced  at  this  point  Jupiter  Capitolinus 
and  was  one  day  to  merge  with  Jupiter  in  one  of 
his  aspects  at  Rome.  Now  came  a  very  un- 
Roman  feature  of  the  ceremony.  A  platform  had 
been  erected  in  front  of  the  Serapeum,  all  plated 
with  silver,  and  upon  it  had  been  placed  a  golden 
throne.  On  this  sat  Cleopatra,  dressed  in  the 
straight  narrow  robe  of  the  goddess  Isis,  with 
the  hawk-headed  and  cow-horned  crown  upon 
her  head,  waiting  in  stately  repose  to  receive  the 
homage  of  the  conqueror  and  his  captives.  The 
Armenian  royal  family,  however,  unexpectedly 
declined  to  humble  themselves  before  her,  and, 
heedless  of  the  threats  of  their  guards,  insisted 
on  addressing  her  simply  by  her  name.  Arta- 
vasdes,  in  spite  of  the  treachery  of  his  conduct 
towards  Antony  in  36  B.C.,  was  a  cultured  man, 
who  had  written  tragedies,  and  was  too  proud, 
even  in  his  present  abasement,  to  lend  himself  to 
the  farce  of  the  divine  Cleopatra.  He  and  his 
family,  it  was  said,  suffered  harsh  treatment  for 
their  obstinacy  ;  but  happily  there  was  no  execu- 
tion at  the  end  of  the  procession,  such  as  com- 
monly disgraced  a  Roman  triumph,  and  the  life 
of  Artavasdes  himself  was  spared  at  least  until 
four  years  later. 
The  day  wound  up  with  a  banquet  given  to  the 
206 


THE   EMPIRE   OF   THE   EAST 

whole  of  Alexandria.  But  Antony  had  an  even 
more  astonishing  spectacle  in  store  for  the  city 
than  that  which  had  just  been  witnessed.  The 
people  were  summoned  to  the  grounds  of  the 
Gymnasium,  where  they  once  more  saw  a  plat- 
form of  silver,  supporting  this  time  two  large  and 
four  smaller  thrones  of  gold.  On  the  large  thrones 
sat  Antony  and  Cleopatra,  on  the  smaller 
Caesarion,  the  twins  Alexander  Helios  and  Cleo- 
patra Selene,  and  the  baby  Ptolemy.  The  cere- 
mony began  by  Antony  proclaiming  Cleopatra 
Queen  of  Egypt,  Cyprus,  and  Coele-Syria,  with 
Caesarion  as  co-regent.  Then  he  announced  that 
he  gave  to  Alexander  Armenia,  Media,  and 
Parthia ;  to  Ptolemy  Phoenicia,  Syria,  and 
Cilicia  ;  and  to  Selene  Cyrenaica  and  the  neigh- 
bouring portions  of  Libya.  Alexander  and 
Ptolemy  were  led  forward  on  the  platform,  dressed 
one  in  Median  costume  and  an  upstanding  tiara, 
such  as  the  kings  of  the  Medes  and  Armenians 
wore,  the  other  in  Macedonian  cloak  and  boots  and 
a  cap  with  a  diadem  about  it,  like  the  successors 
of  Alexander  the  Great.  The  boys  saluted  their 
parents  and  were  then  surrounded  by  bodyguards 
composed  of  Armenians  and  Macedonians  respec- 
tively. Plutarch  says  that  Caesarion,  Alexander, 
and  Ptolemy  were  all  assigned  the  title  of  "  King  of 
Kings,"  Dion  that  it  was  given  to  Cleopatra  and 
Caesarion  only.  We  know  from  an  inscription 
found  on  the  island  of  Delos  that  the  title  was 
207 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

actually  applied  to  Caesarion.*  Cleopatra  cannot 
well  have  been  left  out  if  the  son  who  ruled  Egypt 
with  her  was  thus  honoured.  But  there  seems  no 
reason  why  Antony's  own  sons  should  not  have 
shared  the  honour  with  Caesar's  offspring  and  the 
mother  of  them  all.  There  was  always  room  in 
the  East  for  many  a  "  King  of  Kings." 

Antony  had  provided  the  Alexandrians  in  the 
course  of  a  few  days  with  two  very  magnificent 
pageants.  In  the  first  they  had  witnessed  their 
city  exalted  to  a  level  with  Rome  and  sharing  a 
privilege  which  had  never  before  been  shared  by 
any  other  city  with  Rome.  In  the  second  they 
had  seen  their  country  transformed  into  a  central 
power  round  which  were  grouped  three  semi- 
dependent  kingdoms,  ruled  over  by  children  of 
their  queen,  and  stretching  eastward  to  Persia, 
northward  to  the  Caucasus,  and  westward  to  the 
modem  Tripoli.  Truly  a  wonderful  change  had 
been  wrought  since  the  days  when  Ptolemy 
Auletes  had  struggled  so  hard,  and  at  such  an 
expense  to  his  people's  pockets,  to  preserve  Egypt 
from  the  fate  of  becoming  a  mere  Roman  province. 

If  we  regard  Antony  as  a  truly  great  man,  whose 
character  has  been  grossly  calumniated  owing  to 
the  fact  that  the  victorious  cause  pleased  not  only 
the  gods  but  also  all  the  historians  of  Imperial 

*  This  is  Strack's  reasonable  deduction  from  the  mutilated 
fragment  to  which  he  refers  in  "  Die  Dynastie  der  Ptolemagr," 
p.  272. 

208 


THE   EMPIRE   OF   THE   EAST 

Rome,  we  still  must  find  it  difficult  to  explain  how 
he  could  take  away  from  his  native  land  nearly  the 
whole  of  its  Eastern  possessions,  to  divide  them 
between  his  mistress  and  her  children  by  him  and 
by  Julius  Caesar  and  yet  expect  to  be  considered 
a  Roman  citizen,  capable  of  maintaining  relations 
with  the  Senate  and  people  of  Rome.  But  we  do 
find  him  in  the  year  following  his  "  Alexandrian 
donations,"  as  his  contemporaries  called  them, 
actually  endeavouring  to  get  these  ratified  by 
Rome,  whose  pride  he  had  outraged  and  whose 
laws  he  had  flouted  by  the  whole  course  of  his 
conduct  in  Egypt.  There  only  appears  to  be  one 
reasonable  way  of  accounting  for  his  extraordinary 
attitude  ;  and  that  is,  as  has  already  been  sug- 
gested in  this  book,  to  suppose  that  his  brain  had 
begun  to  be  affected. 

His  fellow-countrymen  could  not  have  had  much 
doubt  about  the  fate  which  overtook  Antony 
owing  to  the  life  which  he  had  led  for  so  many 
years.  They  found  no  difficulty  in  believing  the 
tale  that  he  was  perpetually  drunk,  while  Cleo- 
patra shared  his  excesses  and  yet  kept  sober  by 
means  of  her  ring  of  amethyst,  that  stone  which 
was  credited  with  the  virtue  of  preserving  a  clear 
head  for  its  wearer.  The  historian  Florus  draws 
a  lurid  picture  of  Antony's  ruin.  "  This  Egj^ptian 
woman,"  he  writes,  "  asked  of  the  drunken  general 
as  the  price  of  her  embraces  the  gift  of  the  Roman 
Empire,  and  Antony  promised  it  to  her,  as  though 

209 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

Romans  were  easier  to  conquer  than  Parthians, 
.  .  .  Forgetting  his  country,  his  name,  his  toga, 
and  the  insignia  of  his  office,  he  had  degenerated 
wholly,  in  thought,  feeling,  and  dress,  into  that 
monster  of  whom  we  know.  In  his  hand  was  a 
golden  sceptre,  at  his  side  a  scimetar  ;  his  purple 
robes  were  clasped  with  great  jewels,  and  he  wore 
a  diadem  on  his  head  that  he  might  be  a  king  to 
match  the  queen  he  loved." 

Velleius  similarly  writes  about  the  degradation 
of  Antony  and  his  followers,  especially  Plancus,  for 
whom  he  seems  to  have  a  special  detestation. 
Antony,  he  says,  having  ordered  that  he  should  be 
called  "  the  new  Liber  Pater  "  (that  is,  Bacchus), 
was  carried  through  the  streets  of  Alexandria,  in  a 
car  like  the  god's,  garlanded  with  ivy,  wearing 
a  golden  crown,  with  buskins  on  his  feet,  and  a 
thyrsus  in  his  hand.  As  for  Plancus,  "  the 
meanest  flatterer  of  the  queen,  more  obsequious 
than  any  slave,  and  the  instigator  and  minister  of 
Antony's  vilest  excesses,"  Velleius  describes  him  as 
dancing  at  a  banquet,  in  the  character  of  the  sea- 
god  Glaucus,  naked  and  painted  blue,  with  a 
chaplet  of  reeds  upon  his  head  and  a  fish-tail 
dragging  behind  him.  For  an  ex-consul,  this 
certainly  appears  an  extraordinary  performance. 

Dion  Cassius,  though  less  sensational  than  the 
two  Latin  authors,  relates  that  so  much  had  Cleo- 
patra made  Antony  her  slave  that  he  accepted 
from  her  the  post  of  gymnasiarch  (or  superinten- 

210 


THE   EMPIRE   OF   THE   EAST 

dent  of  the  games)  at  Alexandria,  and  that  he 
called  her  queen  and  mistress  and  had  her  name 
put  upon  the  shields  of  the  Roman  legionaries. 
"  And  he  went  to  the  Agora  with  her,  conducted 
the  festivals  for  her,  tried  cases  with  her,"  and  rode 
about  with  her,  or  else  she  rode  in  a  chariot  while 
he  walked  on  foot  among  the  eunuchs." 

Much  of  this  attack  upon  Antony,*  it  may  be 
said,  is  mere  invective,  and  in  any  case  we  have 
no  means  of  sifting  out  the  grains  of  truth  among 
the  harvest  of  charges  brought  by  writers  under 
the  Empire  against  the  enemy  of  the  first  Em- 
peror. The  supposition,  however,  that  Antony 
had  begun  to  pay  the  penalty  for  his  past  life  is 
both  legitimate  and  satisfactory  in  view  of  what 
was  to  come.  It  would  be  surprising  if  more  than 
thirty  years  of  violent  excesses  of  every  kind, 
combined  with  twenty  years  of  good  fortune, 
nearly  ten  of  them  years  of  unrestrained  power, 
had  not  produced  a  harmful  effect  upon  a  mind 
never  so  strong  as  the  body  in  which  it  worked. 
It  is  difficult  for  a  debauchee  who  has  become 
a  demi-god  f  to  remain  perfectly  sane.  If  any 
proof  is  required  of  Antony's  mental  alienation 
beyond  his  delusion  that  his  acts  were  capable  of 

•  Florus,  IV.  1 1  ;  Velleius  Paterculus,  II.  82-3  ;  Dion 
Cassius,   L.   5. 

t  To  help  him  on  the  path,  Cleopatra  is  said  to  have 
commenced  about  this  time  to  erect  in  honour  of  Antony 
the  building  afterwards  known  as  the  Caesareum.  Octavian 
converted  it  into  a  memorial  of  himself. 

211 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

ratification  by  Rome,  it  may  be  found  in  his  pro- 
ceedings before  and  during  the  battle  of  Actium. 
If  the  Antony  of  Mutina,  of  Pharsalia  and 
Philippi,  of  the  retreat  from  Armenia,  had 
then  ceased  to  exist,  and  had  been  replaced  by 
a  man  of  tottering  mind,  it  is  at  least  possible  to 
explain  a  battle  which  on  any  other  hypothesis 
is  an  incomprehensible  mystery. 


212 


CHAPTER  XIli 

THE  PRELUDE  TO  ACTIUM 

As  must  have  been  foreseen  by  any  man  whose 
mental  balance  had  not  been  destroyed,  the 
news  of  Antony's  proceedings  at  Alexandria  was 
bound  to  be  carried  to  Rome  speedily  and  to  create 
a  profoundly  unfavourable  impression  there. 
Nothing  could  better  serve  the  cause  of  Octavian, 
already  successful  in  overcoming  much  of  the  pre- 
judice which  had  formerly  existed  against  him 
among  his  fellow-citizens,  than  that  Antony  should 
be  seen  by  them  in  the  light  of  a  robber  of  his 
country  for  the  benefit  of  a  woman — and  an 
Egyptian  woman  ! — for  whom  he  had  ignomini- 
ously  discarded  his  legal  Roman  wife.  For  one 
who  had  declared  his  willingness  to  give  up  all  his 
extraordinary  powers  after  Antony's  return  from 
the  Parthian  War,  "  being  persuaded  that  Antony 
too  would  be  ready  to  lay  down  his  powers  now 
that  the  civil  wars  were  ended,"*  it  was  most 
convenient  that  his  rival  should  show  a  deter- 
mination to  keep  what  he  had  got,  in  defiance  of 
promises    and    of    general    hopes.     The    longer 

*  Appian,  "  Civil  Wars,"  V.  132.  It  was  after  his  defeat 
of  Sextus  Pompeius  and  Lepidus  that  Octavian  is  said  to 
have  made  this  declaration. 

213 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

Antony  remained  leagued  with  Cleopatra  and  the 
more  he  bestowed  upon  her,  the  greater  became 
Octavian's  chance  of  being  chosen  to  represent 
the  Roman  People  in  a  war  waged  to  chastise  a 
rebel  against  its  authority  ;  and  the  smaller,  too, 
would  grow  the  number  of  those  willing  to  throw  in 
their  lot  with  Antony  when  the  time  for  a  decisive 
struggle  arrived. 

For,  in  spite  of  the  enormous  strain  which  he  put 
upon  their  loyalty,  Antony  still  continued  to  have 
many  adherents  in  Rome,  the  fascination  of  his 
greatness  and  the  fear  of  Octavian's  designs  com- 
bining to  keep  together  a  party  which  looked  to 
him  as  the  ultimate  saviour  of  the  State.  As 
appeared  later,  many  of  the  aristocracy  thought 
that  only  he  had  the  power  to  re-establish  the  old 
Republic.  There  were  also,  among  the  devotees  of 
the  cult  of  Julius  Caesar,  those  who  believed  that 
Caesarion  should  have  been  the  Dictator's  heir,  not 
Octavian.  Antony's  friends  were  ready  to  en- 
courage such  belief  by  circulating  the  story  that 
there  had  been  a  later  will,  suppressed  after  the 
death  of  Julius,  by  which  it  was  to  Caesarion  the 
son,  and  not  to  Octavian  the  grand-nephew,  that 
the  heritage  had  been  left .  This  was  a  point  which 
touched  Octavian  sorely  ;  and,  according  to  Dion 
Cassius,  it  was  Antony's  recognition  of  Caesarion 
as  a  legitimate  son  of  Julius  which  determined 
Octavian's  mind  to  war. 

Civil  war,  however,  was  not  yet  talked  about  at 
214 


THE    PRELUDE   TO    ACTIUM 

the  beginning  of  33,  when,  after  his  third  winter 
in  Alexandria,  Antony  set  out  for  Armenia.  The 
Roman  world  stOl  expected  him  to  fight  the  Par- 
thians,  for  Crassus  remained  unavenged,  and  his 
eagles  had  not  been  recovered.  Armenia  had  been 
conquered  and  garrisoned  the  previous  year,  ap- 
parenth"  with  a  view  to  making  it  a  base  for  a 
campaign  farther  into  the  heart  of  Western  Asia. 
But  did  Antony  any  longer  intend  to  invade 
Parthia  ?  His  action  on  reaching  Armenia  indi- 
cated either  that  he  did  not  feel  himself  strong 
enough  for  such  a  task  or  that  he  knew  he  must 
husband  his  strength  for  some  other  purpose.  He 
contented  himself  with  some  readjustment  of  the 
boundaries  of  his  allies  in  the  Caucasus,  assigning 
to  Polemon  of  Pontus  the  region  known  as  Lesser 
Armenia  and  to  Artavasdes  of  Media  a  slice  of 
Greater  Armenia.  With  Artavasdes  also  he  made 
an  exchange  of  troops,  giving  some  infantry  in 
return  for  some  mounted  archers.  Finally  he 
obtained  from  Artavasdes  the  standards  which  the 
Medes  had  captured  from  his  own  rearguard  when 
they  surrounded  it  and  his  siege-train  in  the  winter 
of  36.  With  this  poor  substitute  for  Crassus's  eagles 
Antony  returned  to  Asia  Minor.  Thus  he  never 
accomplished  the  task  of  conquering  the  Parthians, 
the  legacy  of  Julius  Caesar  and  the  reason  for 
which  he  was  given  his  extraordinary  command  in 
the  East.  The  glory  of  bringing  back  the  spoils  of 
Crassus  he  left  to  the  representatives  of  Augustus 

215 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

thirteen  years  later,  when  scenes  of  most  re- 
markable enthusiasm  were  witnessed  at  Rome. 

Antony  brought  back  with  him  also  the  youth- 
ful daughter  of  Artavasdes,  lotapa,  the  betrothed 
of  Alexander  Helios,  whom  her  father  had  en- 
trusted to  him  to  be  educated  at  Alexandria. 
With  her  he  hurried  back  to  Alexandria,  leaving 
•  orders  for  his  sixteen  legions  under  the  command 
of  Canidius  to  proceed  to  Ephesus  and  wait  his 
return  to  them.* 

Matters  had  been  taking  such  a  course  in  33  that 
it  was  now  recognised  as  impossible  that  war  could 
'be  much  longer  averted  between  the  two  hahes 
of  the  Roman  Empire.  Unfortunately,  all  the 
ancient  historians  are  so  confused  in  their  presen- 
tation of  the  order  of  events  that  they  have  put  it 
out  of  the  power  of  modern  writers  to  attain  any 
certainty.  It  would  appear  as  if  Antony  did  not 
apply  to  the  Roman  Government  for  a  ratification 
of  his  rearrangement  of  the  East — "  the  donations 
of  Alexandria  " — until  late  in  33,  which  is  very 
strange,  seeing  that  the  rearrangement  took  place 
at  the  end  of  34  and  could  not  but  be  known  in 
Rome  early  in  the  following  year.  It  is  possible, 
of  course,  that  Antony  sent  his  application,  to- 
gether with  his  report  on  the  conquest  of  Armenia, 

*  M.  Bouche-Leclercq  ("  Histoire  des  Lagides,"  II.  pp.  281, 
287)  makes  out  a  good  case  for  Antony's  visit  to  Alexandria 
before  going  to  Ephesus.  He  is  usually  said  to  have  gone 
straight  to  Ephesus  and  to  have  awaited  Cleopatra's  arrival 
thither. 

216 


THE    PRELUDE   TO    ACTIUM 

to  his  agents  early,  but  that  Octavian  managed  to 
prevent  it  being  laid  before  the  Senate.  It  never 
came  up  officially,  in  fact,  as  will  be  seen.  An- 
tony's two  chief  supporters  in  Rome  were  Caius 
Sosius,  who  as  governor  of  Syria  had  helped  Herod 
to  storm  Jerusalem  in  37  and  set  himself  again  on 
the  throne  of  Judaea  ;  and  Cnaeus  Domitius 
Ahenobarbus,  of  whom,  too,  we  have  already 
heard.  These  two  were  consuls  designate  for  the 
year  32,  in  accordance  with  the  allocation  of  offices 
made  by  Octavian  and  Antony  at  Tarentum, 
While  still  only  designate  they  had  no  official 
standing  and  had  no  means  of  forcing  an  oppor- 
tunity to  lay  Antony's  request  formally  before  the 
Senate.  Nevertheless,  it  is  remarkable  that 
Antony  should  have  been  obliged  to  wait  until  the 
beginning  of  32,  when  Sosius  and  Ahenobarbus 
took  office,  before  he  could  bring  forward  a  matter 
which  was  the  subject  of  common  public  dis- 
cussion in  Rome. 

Delay,  no  doubt,  suited  Octavian's  purpose 
admirably.  The  term  of  the  Second  Triumvirate, 
in  spite  of  Lepidus  having  dropped  out,  was  due 
to  last  until  December  31st,  B.C.  33,  to  which 
date  it  had  been  extended  by  the  Treaty  of  Taren- 
tum. If  that  term  should  expire  with  Antony's 
acts  unratified,  Antony  would  clearly  be  in  an 
unpleasant  position  when  called  upon  to  lay  down 
his  extraordinary  power,  as  he  had  professed 
himself  willing  to  do.     Octavian  could  well  afford 

217 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

to  wait  until  the  New  Year,  when  he  had  means  at 
his  disposal  of  dealing  with  troublesome  consuls 
like  Sosius  and  Ahenobarbus.  Antony,  on  his 
part,  if  he  could  not  compel  the  Senate  to  con- 
sider his  acts,  could  do  nothing  else  but  wait,  since 
any  violent  procedure  would  strip  away  the  last 
rags  of  legality  which  hung  about  his  conduct  in 
the  East. 

While  they  watched  for  the  coming  of  January 
32,  the  masters  of  the  East  and  the  West  amused 
themselves  by  exchanging  abusive  letters,  of  which 
the  scandal-loving  Suetonius  professes  to  preserve 
some,  including  a  fragment  from  Antony  which 
inspires  Professor  Ferrero  to  make  the  im justifiable 
remark  that  decency  was  unknown  to  the 
ancients.*  From  the  day  of  their  first  meeting 
after  the  death  of  Julius  Caesar  the  antipathy 
between  the  two  rivals  who  had  divided  his  in- 
heritance had  been  intense,  and  the  causes  for 
bitterness  now,  after  an  acquaintance  of  twelve 
years,   were   innumerable.     Yet   it   is  somewhat 


*  Professor  Ferrero  says  :  "  It  would  be  impossible  for 
me  to  translate  the  fragment.  This  is  to  be  regretted,  for 
it  shows  the  two  principal  men  of  the  Empire  exchanging 
recriminations  in  a  tone  worthy  of  street  roughs  or  drunken 
students.  Decency  was  a  thing  totally  unknown  to  the 
ancients  "  ("  Greatness  and  Decline  of  Rome,"  IV.  ch.  4). 
Antony's  reported  frankness  of  speech  concerning  his  rela- 
tions with  Cleopatra  is  appalling.  But,  apart  from  the  in- 
evitable doubts  as  to  the  veracity  of  Suetonius,  what  right 
has  Antony  to  be  considered  a  type  of  ancient  decency  ? 
He  is  not  even  typical  of  Roman  decency  in  the  middle  of 
the  first  century  B.C. 

218 


THE    PRELUDE   TO    ACTIUM 

astonishing  that  they  could  descend  to  vulgar 
abuse  of  one  another  in  order  to  relieve  their 
feelings.  It  seems  at  least  to  show  that  neither 
looked  forward  to  the  possibility  of  outwardly 
friendly  relations  after  the  expiry  of  the  Treaty  of 
Tarentum. 

Antony  had  chosen  as  his  winter  residence  the 
town  of  Ephesus.  We  may  wonder  whether,  when 
she  came  thither,  it  occurred  to  Cleopatra  to  think 
of  her  sister  Arsinoe,  who  had  perished  there  a 
victim  to  her  hatred.  She  came  in  state  befitting 
her  first  foreign  tour  since  her  proclamation  at 
Alexandria  as  queen  of  an  enlarged  Egypt,  and 
watched  with  Antony  the  gathering  together  of 
forces,  militar^^  and  naval,  and  supplies  of  money 
and  stores.  Her  own  contribution,  according  to 
Plutarch,  included  two  hundred  ships  (a  quarter 
of  the  Antonian  fleet),  twenty  thousand  talents 
(nearly  £5,000,000),  and  war-supplies  for  the  whole 
army.  She  might  well  have  claimed  to  be 
Antony's  right  hand  and  his  most  indispensable 
ally.  He  at  least  would  not  have  disputed  such  a 
claim  ;  but  there  were  soon  coming  those  who 
denied  her  right  to  be  with  him  at  all. 

January  brought  with  it  the  crisis  for  which 
the  Roman  world  had  been  waiting.  Hitherto 
Antony's  supporters  in  Rome  had  been  unable 
to  demand  a  public  hearing  of  the  communica- 
tions which  they  had  received  from  their  chief. 
Octavian,  however,  if  Plutarch  is  correct,  had 
219 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

complained  both  in  the  Senate  and  before  the 
people  of  the  illegal  division  of  the  East.  The  fol- 
lowers of  Antony  had  retorted  with  complaints 
about  Octavian's  annexation  of  Sicily  and  the 
province  of  Africa  and  his  neglect  to  provide  for 
Antony's  veterans  as  he  had  promised.  Thereupon 
Octavian  asked  for  his  share  of  Armenia,  and  sug- 
gested that  the  Antonian  veterans  did  not  require 
land  in  Italy,  as  they  had  Media  and  Parthia,  which 
they  had  added  to  the  Roman  Empire  by  their 
brave  conduct  under  their  general. 

It  is  possible  that  Plutarch's  account  of  these 
recriminations  is  a  loose  summary,  misplaced  as  to 
time,*  of  the  arguments  in  the  Senate  at  the  open- 
ing of  the  New  Year.  Sosius,  having  been  obliged 
to  wait  until  January  ist,  lost  no  time,  now  that 
he  and  Ahenobarbus  were  consuls,  before  inviting 
Octavian  to  lay  down  his  extraordinary  powers 
and  return  to  the  rank  of  an  ordinary  citizen, 
under  penalty  of  being  declared  a  public  enemy. 
Octavian,  having  foreseen  the  danger  of  such  a 
demand  while  Antony  could  still  claim  to  have  the 
Parthian  War  to  finish,  did  not  enter  the  Senate- 
house,  but  procured  one  of  the  tribunes  of  the 
people  to  prevent  by  the  time-honoured  Roman 
method  of  the  veto  the  Senate's  vote.  On  the 
next  day  for  business  he  came  into  the  Senate  well 
escorted  and  demanded  that  the  consuls  should 

*  He  puts  the  discussion  while  Antony  was  in  Armenia, 
which  hardly  seems  likely  ("  Antony,"  55). 

220 


THE    PRELUDE   TO    ACTIUM 

read  Antony's  letters  to  themselves.  They  in  turn 
claimed  the  right  to  read  instead  Antony's  report 
on  the  Armenian  campaign.  Octavian  used  his 
influence  as  President  of  the  Senate  to  prevent 
this,  and  finished  by  inviting  Sosius  and  Aheno- 
barbus  to  attend  next  da}'  to  hear  him  bring  for- 
ward proofs  of  Antony's  crimes.  Seeing  that 
Octavian  was  too  strong  for  them,  and  that  the 
opportunity  of  carrying  out  Antony's  instructions, 
Nvhich  they  had  hoped  their  office  would  give  them, 
was  not  coming,  the  consuls  abandoned  constitu- 
tional methods  and  left  Rome  for  the  coast  and  for 
Asia  Minor,  to  report  their  failure  at  headquarters. 
With  them  went  a  large  body  of  Senators,  about 
four  hundred,  as  it  appears  later,  and  other  sup- 
porters of  Antony,  whom  Octavian  diplomatically 
allowed  to  depart  unhindered.  The  whole  mob  of 
fugitives  crossed  the  sea  and  presented  themselves 
before  Antony  at  Ephesus,  calling  on  him  to  sail 
for  Italy  and  "  restore  the  Republic."  At  Ephe- 
sus, of  course,  they  found  not  only  Antony  but  also 
Cleopatra,  first  in  his  councils  and  in  every  way 
treated  as  a  great  queen,  not  like  the  other  kings 
of  Asia  Minor  and  Syria,  mere  vassals  of  the 
Empire.  To  the  majority  of  the  Antonian  fugi- 
tives from  Rome  this  discovery  came  as  a  most 
unpleasant  shock,  and  they  positively  declined  to 
humble  themselves  before  the  Egyptian  woman. 
How  strongly  expressed  their  opinion  must  have 
been  may  be  gathered  from  the  fact  that  Antony 

221 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

asked  Cleopatra  to  return  to  Egypt  and  wait  until 
the  war  should  be  over.  Plutarch  attributes  this 
request  to  the  persuasions  of  "  Domitius  and 
certain  others."  Cnaeus  Domitius  Ahenobarbus, 
scion  of  one  of  the  oldest  families  in  Rome,*  is 
described  by  Velleius  Paterculus  later  as  the  only 
man  among  Antony's  followers  who  was  never 
known  to  address  Cleopatra  except  by  her  name  ; 
that  is  to  say,  he  never  called  her  queen.  Now 
already,  on  his  arrival  at  Ephesus,  he  led  the 
demand  for  her  dismissal  from  the  camp  of  him 
whom  he  desired  to  see  give  Rome  once  more  her 
old  constitutional  government. 

Cleopatra,  however,  would  not  allow  herself  to 
be  driven  away  so  easily.  Antony  might  waver, 
uncertain  whether  he  could  afford  to  put  his  mis- 
tress's society,  or  even  her  undoubted  value  as  an 
ally,  above  the  good-will  of  the  men  who  had  up- 
held his  cause  in  Rome  and  were  now  furnishing 
him  with  his  pretext  for  a  forcible  return  to  his 
native  land.  But  Cleopatra  could  not  hesitate 
where  her  whole  influence  over  Antony  was  at 
stake.     She  had  many  reasons  for  fearing  either 


*  It  was  to  one  of  his  ancestors,  more  than  four  centuries 
and  a  half  before,  that  Castor  and  Pollux  were  said  to  have 
appeared  and  prophesied  the  Roman  victory  over  the  Latins 
at  Lake  Regillus,  by  way  of  token  stroking  his  black  beard 
and  turning  it  copper-colour,  whence  the  family  name 
Ahenobarbus.  This  Cnaeus  Domitius,  it  may  be  noted, 
was  like  Antony  himself  a  great-grandfather  of  the  Emperor 
Nero,  his  son  Lucius  marrying  Antonia,  daughter  of  Antony 
and  Octavia. 

222 


THE    PRELUDE   TO    ACTIUM 

his  success  in  the  war  while  she  was  absent  or  his 
reconcihation  with  Octavian.  Fortunately  for 
her,  she  had  one  resource  which  had  never  failed 
to  procure  advocates  for  her  father  or  herself. 
Publius  Canidius  Crassus  was  Antony's  most 
trusted  general,  the  commander  who  had  led  his 
legions  from  Armenia  to  Ephesus.  To  him  she 
gave  a  large  bribe,  says  Plutarch,  that  he  might 
represent  to  Antony  the  injustice  of  sending  away 
one  from  the  war  who  had  contributed  so  much 
toward  it,  and  the  inadvisability  of  discouraging 
the  big  Egyptian  contingent  in  his  fleet.  "  And, 
besides,  he  could  not  see  to  which  of  the  kings  who 
had  joined  the  expedition  Cleopatra  was  inferior 
in  understanding,  having  for  a  long  time  by  her- 
self governed  a  vast  kingdom,  and  having  learnt  in 
Antony's  company  the  handling  of  great  affairs." 

"  These  arguments  prevailed,"  Plutarch  adds, 
"  for  it  was  fated  that  all  the  power  should  come 
into  the  hands  of  Caesar  [Octavian]."  Cleopatra 
was  not  sent  away,  but  remained  with  the  An- 
tonian  army,  to  be  the  cause  of  many  dissensions 
between  the  leader  and  his  subordinates,  and  to 
drive  into  the  camp  of  Octavian  some  of  the  most 
influential  of  the  latter  before  the  crowning 
disaster  of  Actium  decided  the  fate  of  the  Empire. 

When  the  military  and  naval  assembly  at 
Ephesus  was  complete  by  the  arrival  of  the 
refugees  from  Rome  and  the  forces  supplied  by 
the  subject  and  semi-dependent  kings  and  cities 

223 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

of  the  East,  Antony  toward  the  end  of  April  in 
the  year  32  moved  his  headquarters  to  the  island 
of  Samos,  where  he  gave  himself  up  to  a  round 
of  gaieties  in  the  company  of  Cleopatra  and  the 
pick  of  the  public  entertainers  of  the  day,  to  whom 
he  had  sent  an  invitation  to  meet  him  and  provide 
him  with  amusement.  The  contrast  between  the 
heavy  exactions  which  Antony  had  made  with 
a  view  to  the  war  and  the  merriment  at  Samos 
provokes  Plutarch  to  observe  that,  "  while  nearly 
all  the  world  around  was  lamenting  and  groaning, 
this  one  island  was  full  of  the  sound  of  pipes 
and  of  stringed  instruments,  and  the  theatres 
were  packed."  In  spite  of  the  burdens  which 
their  share  in  the  coming  struggle  entailed  upon 
them,  the  allies  felt  constrained  to  make  their 
contributions  also  to  the  revels  at  Samos,  which 
were  accordingly  on  so  vast  a  scale  as  to  cause  the 
question  to  be  asked  :  "  How  will  they  behave 
after  victory  who  make  such  costly  banquets  to 
celebrate  their  preparation  for  war  ?  "* 

When  the  Samian  festivities  were  ended, 
Antony  went  a  stage  farther  in  the  direction  of 
his  goal,  but  only  to  Athens,  where  he  stopped 
and  again  gave  himself  up  to  the  pleasures  of 
the  moment.  This  was  the  first  visit  of  Cleopatra 
to  Athens.  Her  wish  to  see  the  place  was  as 
great  as  the  pleasure  professed  by  the  citizens 
at  seeing  her.     Cleopatra  was  particularly  stirred 

*  Plutarch,  "  Antony,"  56. 
224 


THE    PRELUDE   TO    ACTIUM 

by  a  recollection  of  the  favour  which  Octavia 
had  gained  when  she  wintered  in  the  ancient 
city  six  years  before,  and  in  her  endeavour  to  blot 
out  the  memory  of  Antony's  wife  she  showed 
herself  a  most  generous  benefactress  to  the 
Athenians.  They  in  their  turn  voted  her  many 
public  honours,  sending  to  her  a  deputation  to 
announce  the  vote,  at  the  head  of  which  was 
Antony  himself  in  his  capacity  of  a  freeman  of 
the  city.  Among  other  distinctions  they  ac- 
corded to  her  a  statue  in  the  Acropolis,  which  was 
set  up  beside  the  statue  already  erected  to  Antony. 
It  could  not  be  expected  that  this  image  of 
Cleopatra  should  be  preserved  after  the  ruin  of 
the  Antonian  cause ;  and  so,  unhappily,  the 
world  has  lost  an  opportunity  of  knowing  how 
one  of  its  heroines  appeared  to  a  Greek  sculptor. 
While  introducing  Cleopatra  to  Athens  and 
renewing  in  her  society  his  acquaintance  with  the 
culture  and  amusements  of  the  city,  Antony 
did  not  entirely  neglect  business  affairs.  At 
least  he  took  a  step  which  brought  war  percep- 
tibly nearer,  if  it  was  not  an  actual  declaration 
of  war.  There  met  him  at  Athens  Antyllus, 
the  elder  of  his  sons  by  Fulvia,  now  in  about  his 
fourteenth  year.  Hitherto  the  boy  had  lived 
chiefly  with  his  stepmother  Octavia,  from  whom 
he  may  now  have  brought  a  last  appeal  to  Antony. 
If  this  was  so,  Antony's  reply  was  prompt  and 
brutal.     He  kept  Antyllus  at  Athens,  but  called 

225  8 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

together  a  meeting  of  the  Senatorial  members 
of  his  party  and  put  before  them  the  question  of 
his  formal  repudiation  of  his  wife.  In  view  of 
the  Roman  dislike  of  Cleopatra,  who  would  clearly 
have  been  the  only  gainer  by  such  a  divorce,  it 
was  natural  that  he  should  find  among  the 
Senators  considerable  opposition  to  his  scheme. 
But  Cleopatra's  gold  was  again  set  to  work,  and 
in  the  end  Antony  felt  himself  justified  in  signing 
the  letter  casting  off  Octavia.  This  he  sent  at 
once  to  Rome  by  the  hand  of  agents  charged 
with  the  duty  of  ejecting  Octavia  from  his  house 
in  Rome.  "  It  is  reported,"  says  Plutarch,  "  that 
when  she  left  the  house,  she  took  all  the  children 
of  Antony  with  her,  except  the  elder  son  by 
Fulvia  (for  he  was  with  his  father),  and  that 
she  wept  and  lamented  that  she  too  would  be 
looked  upon  as  one  of  the  causes  of  the  war. 
The  Romans  pitied  not  her  but  Antony,  especially 
those  who  had  seen  Cleopatra,  a  woman  who  had 
no  advantage  over  Octavia  either  in  beauty 
or  in  youth." 

Octavian  had  been  accused  in  35,  as  we  have 
seen,  of  being  willing  to  expose  his  sister  to  a 
cruel  rebuff  from  Antony,  in  the  hope  of  finding 
a  pretext  for  war.  He  certainly  had  such  a 
pretext  now,  and  at  the  same  time  the  opportunity 
of  a  strong  appeal  to  Roman  sentiment  against 
foreigners.  For  what  reason,  he  might  ask, 
had  Antony  divorced  Octavia  except  to  be  free 

226 


THE    PRELUDE   TO    ACTIUM 

to  make  the  Egyptian  woman  his  wife,  which 
he  could  not,  in  Roman  eyes,  as  long  as  he  was 
bound  to  Octavia  ?  Indeed,  there  appears  no 
other  reason,  unless  we  impute  to  Antony  an  act 
of  wanton  brutality  against  the  wife  of  whose 
faithfulness  to  himself  he  had  hitherto  taken 
advantage  to  further  his  interests  at  Rome. 
It  is  true  that  we  do  not  even  now  read  of  any 
formal  marriage  to  Cleopatra  after  the  repudiation 
of  Octavia.  But,  whatever  view  we  take  of  the 
Antioch  marriage  question  mentioned  in  Chapter 
XI,  we  must  admit  that  Antony  had  treated 
Cleopatra  as  though  she  were  actually  his  legal 
wife  at  the  time  of  the  astonishing  donations  of 
Alexandria.  It  was  perhaps  to  clear  himself  of 
a  possible  charge  of  polygamy  brought  by  Aheno- 
barbus  and  his  other  supporters  from  Rome 
that  after  their  arrival  in  the  East  he  took  the 
step  of  divorcing  Octavia. 

But  the  result  was  anything  but  favourable 
to  his  popularity  among  his  Roman  friends. 
Cleopatra,  elated  by  her  victory  over  Octavia, 
became  more  insiifferable  to  them,  and  now 
desertions  began  to  take  place  of  those  most 
disgusted  with  the  state  of  affairs  which  they 
foimd  prevailing  at  Antony's  headquarters,  or 
least  scrupulous  about  abandoning  what  they 
had  once  professed  to  consider  the  constitutional 
cause.  Two  of  the  earliest  to  join  Octavian  were 
able  to  win  his  favour  by  a  breach  of  confidence 

227 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

which  damaged  Anton}^  seriously.  These  were 
Titius,  the  executioner  of  Sextus  Pompeius, 
and  his  uncle  Munatius  Plancus,  who  had  so 
distinguished  himself  in  his  masquerade  as 
Glaucus  at  Alexandria. 

"  Titius  and  Plancus,"  says  Plutarch,  "  both 
men  of  consular  rank,  being  insulted  by  Cleopatra, 
whose  design  of  joining  the  campaign  they  had 
been  foremost  in  resisting,  escaped  to  Caesar 
and  gave  information  about  the  contents  of 
Antony's  will,*  with  which  they  were  acquainted, 
having  been  witnesses  to  it.  The  will  was  de- 
posited with  the  Vestal  Virgins,  who  refused 
to  give  it  up  at  Caesar's  request,  telling  him  that 
if  he  wished  to  have  it  he  must  come  and  take 
it  himself."  Octavian  had  no  scruples  against 
going  to  the  temple  of  Vesta  and  seizing  the  will. 
Having  done  so,  he  read  it  out  to  the  Senate — 
to  the  dissatisfaction  of  many,  Plutarch  records, 
who  thought  it  unfair  to  call  a  man  to  account 
during  his  lifetime  for  what  he  wished  done  after 
his  death.  The  clause  to  which  Octavian  drew 
particular  attention  was  that  in  which  Antony 
asked  that  even  if  he  should  die  in  Rome  his 
body,  after  being  carried  in  state  through  the 
Forum,  should  be  sent  to  Cleopatra  in  Alexandria. 

In  spite  of  the  honourable  scruples  of  part  of 

*  As  M.  Bouche-Leclercq  suggests,  this  was  probably- 
drawn  up  and  sent  to  Rome  in  j6,  when  Antony  was  about  to 
start  on  his  campaign  in  Parthia. 

228 


THE    PRELUDE    TO    ACTIUM 

the  Senate  against  the  seizure  and  reading  of  the 
will,  the  act  was  a  good  stroke  of  policy  on  the 
part  of  Octavian.  And  Antony's  enemies  fol- 
lowed it  up  by  spreading  abroad  many  scandalous 
stories  concerning  his  devotion  to  Cleopatra. 
He  had  presented  to  her,  they  said,  the  great 
library  of  Pergamum,  with  its  two  hundred 
thousand  volumes.  (Was  this  to  compensate 
for  whatever  damage  had  been  done  to  the 
Alexandrian  Library  in  48  ?)  He  was  in  the  habit 
of  receiving  her  love-letters,  on  tablets  of  onyx 
or  crystal,  and  reading  them  while  sitting  on  the 
tribunal  trying  cases.  On  one  occasion,  while 
Fumius,  ex-tribune  of  the  people,  was  pleading 
in  court  before  him,  he  had  noticed  Cleopatra's 
litter  crossing  the  Forum,  whereon  he  jumped 
up,  left  the  court,  and  accompanied  her  home. 
At  banquets  he  would  get  up  from  the  table 
and  give  a  secret  signal  to  Cleopatra  to  follow 
him ;  and  so  on.  Tales  about  Cleopatra's 
behaviour  were  added  to  increase  the  effect. 
Her  favourite  oath  was  alleged  to  be,  "  As  surely 
as  one  day  I  shall  administer  justice  on  the 
Capitol,"  and  she  was  represented  as  having  made 
use  of  drugs  to  overthrow  Antony's  wits  and 
make  him  her  slave.  No  need  was  seen  of 
justice  to  "  the  harlot  queen  of  incestuous 
Canopus,  who  aspired  to  set  up  against  our 
Jupiter  the  barking  Anubis,  and  to  drown  the 
Roman    trumpet    with    her    rattling    sistrum," 

229 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

as  the  poet  Propertius  wrote  in  a  fiercely  patriotic 
mood. 

It  is  a  remarkable  thing  that,  in  spite  of  Antony 
having  so  long  left  Octavian  master  of  Rome, 
in  spite  of  the  departure  of  his  friends  among  the 
aristocracy,  and  in  spite  of  the  steady  campaign 
of  slander  against  him  and  Cleopatra,  there  still 
continued  to  be,  even  in  the  second  half  of  the 
year  32,  a  very  considerable  body  of  opinion 
in  his  favour  at  Rome.  He  had  apparently  given 
every  opportunity  to  his  rival,  yet  Octavian  did 
not  feel  himself  in  a  position  to  take  up  arms 
against  him  as  against  a  public  enemy,  Octavian 
was  no  doubt  throughout  life  inclined  to  act 
upon  that  version  of  "  More  haste,  less  speed," 
which  he  made  his  motto.*  But  it  was  not 
mere  dilatoriness  which  prevented  him  from 
acting.  Lack  of  money,  which  did  not  trouble 
Antony  (thanks  largely  to  the  wealth  of  Cleo- 
patra), forced  Octavian  to  wring  taxes  out  of 
Italy  in  a  way  which  excited  violent  discontent, 
and  inclined  the  waverers  to  look  to  Antony  as 
a  deliverer  from  tyranny.  He  might  be  the  slave 
of  a  "  harlot  queen,"  and  all  else  evil  that  Oc- 
tavian's  friends  called  him,  but  at  least  he  did  not 
appear  to  the  Italians  in  the  light  of  a  rapacious 
tax-collector.     The    days   of   his   financial    mis- 

*  Sat  celeriter  fieri  quidquid  fiat  satis  bene,  according  to 
Suetonius  ("  Whatever  is  well  enough  done  is  done  quickly 
enough  "). 

230 


THE    PRELUDE   TO   ACTIUM 

doings  in  Rome  as  Master  of  the  Horse  to  Julius 
Caesar  were  by  now  forgotten,  while  his  fame  as 
a  great  soldier  did  not  fade  so  rapidly  from  the 
memory. 

Public  opinion  in  Rome  and  throughout  Italy 
not  being  ripe  yet  for  a  declaration  against 
Antony,  Octavian  had  no  choice  but  to  wait 
until  he  should  have  matured  it  with  the  aid  of 
his  agents  and  their  stories  of  the  fate  threatening 
the  Empire  if  Cleopatra's  lover  should  ever 
reach  the  capital.  The  heads  of  the  Antonian 
party  still  left  in  Rome,  realising  that  in  the  end 
Octavian's  policy  would  succeed,  sent  an  urgent 
message  to  Greece,  calling  on  their  chief  not  to 
delay  until  he  should  be  proclaimed  a  public 
enemy.  They  chose  to  convey  the  message  a 
man  called  Geminius,  who  -had  at  least  one 
qualification  for  his  task,  that  he  was  not  afraid 
to  speak  plainly.  On  his  arrival  at  Antony's 
headquarters  he  was  regarded  with  great  suspicion 
by  Cleopatra,  who  feared  he  might  come  from 
Octavia  with  an  offer  of  fresh  intervention  between 
her  former  husband  and  her  brother.  He  was 
subjected  to  insult  and  assigned  a  lowly  place  at 
the  banquets  given  by  Antony  and  Cleopatra  to 
their  friends.  At  last  he  was  directly  challenged 
at  table  to  say  why  he  had  come  to  Greece. 
Geminius  replied  that  he  would  give  the  reason 
when  he  was  sober  ;  but  that  he  knew  one  thing, 
drunk  or  sober,  and  that  was  that  all  would  be 

231 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

well  if  Cleopatra  would  take  her  departure  to 
Egypt.  "  You  have  done  well,  Geminius,"  sneered 
Cleopatra,  "  to  confess  the  truth  without  waiting 
for  torture."  After  this  Geminius  judged  it 
wise  to  return  to  Rome  ;  not  so  much  that  he 
feared  Cleopatra's  threats  as  because  he  saw 
that  it  was  useless  to  attempt  to  separate  Antony 
from  her.  Plutarch,  who  tells  the  story  of  the 
mission  of  Geminius,  says  that  "  the  satellites 
of  Cleopatra  drove  away  also  many  others  of 
Antony's  friends,  who  could  not  put  up  with  their 
excesses  in  drink  and  their  coarse  behaviour." 
Among  those  who  left  Plutarch  mentions  Marcus 
Silanus,  a  former  lieutenant  of  Julius  Caesar 
in  Gaul,  and  Dellius  ;  but  he  is  in  error  in  making 
Dellius  desert  at  this  point. 

Undoubtedly  Cleopatra's  attitude  toward  his 
friends  from  Rome  was  a  most  unfortunate  factor 
in  Antony's  situation  ;  for  the  longer  he  delayed 
coming  to  close  quarters  with  Octavian,  the  more 
disillusioned  became  the  members  of  the  Roman 
nobility  who  had  tried  to  constitute  him  champion 
of  the  Republic,  and  the  more  numerous  grew 
those  who  repented  of  having  attached  themselves 
to  one  who  had  suffered  himself  to  forget  so 
much  of  Roman  ways  since  he  had  last  been  seen 
in  his  native  land.  Professor  Ferrero  defends 
Antony's  inactivity  on  the  ground  that,  as  his 
troops  were  devoted  to  him  and  beyond  the 
power  of  Octavian's  ill-furnished  purse  to  corrupt. 

232 


THE    PRELUDE   TO    ACTIUM 

it  was  good  policy  to  make  Octavian  come  to 
fight  him  away  from  his  own  base  in  Italy. 
Still  there  is  obvious  force  in  the  ancient  opinion 
mentioned  by  Plutarch,  that  his  delay  in  be- 
ginning the  war  was  Antony's  greatest  error. 
When  once  he  had  completed  his  preparations, 
he  was  in  the  position  to  force  the  hand  of  an 
unready  opponent .  Every  month  found  Octavian 
better  equipped,  and  the  disgust  of  Antony's 
Roman  adherents  increased. 

Yet  Antony's  power  of  initiative  seemed  para- 
lysed. He  clearly  felt  that  his  influence  over  the 
Roman  section  of  his  followers  was  in  danger, 
or  he  would  not  have  made  the  proclamation  to 
his  troops,  promising  that  within  two  months* 
after  his  victory  over  Octavian  he  would  lay  down 
his  extraordinary  authority  and  restore  to  the 
Senate  and  People  of  Rome  all  their  old  prero- 
gatives. He  also  employed  agents  to  spread 
money  and  promises  on  his  behalf  up  and  down 
Italy.  But  he  seemed  incapable  of  making 
any  decisive  move.  In  the  autumn  of  32, 
indeed,  more  than  a  year  since  his  setting  out 
from  Alexandria,  he  sailed  along  the  Greek  coast 
as  far  as  Corcyra,  and  looked  as  if  contemplating 
a  crossing  of  the  Adriatic.  But  on  the  appearance 
of   some    hostile    cruisers    in    the    neighbouring 

•  Dion  Cassius  (L.  7)  says  that  his  friends  with  difficulty 
persuaded  him  to  make  the  period  six  months  instead  of 
two. 

233  8* 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

waters  he  abandoned  the  idea  (if  he  really  enter- 
tained it),  and  leaving  a  naval  outpost  at  Corcyra 
and  the  bulk  of  his  fleet  off  the  north-west  coast 
of  Greece,  himself  went  into  winter  quarters 
with  Cleopatra  in  the  Peloponnesian  town  of 
Patrae,  the  modern  Patras. 

The  enemy's  ships,  which  Antony  is  said  to  have 
taken  for  the  vanguard  of  Octavian's  fleet, 
were  in  reality  a  squadron  under  Marcus  Vipsanius 
Agrippa,  who  had  been  a  fellow-student  of  Oc- 
tavian  at  ApoUonia  at  the  time  of  Julius  Caesar's 
death,  and  had  since  become  his  brain  and  right 
hand  combined  as  far  as  affairs  of  war  were  con- 
cerned. Although  there  had  as  yet  been  no  formal 
declaration,  a  state  of  war  virtually  existed  from 
the  middle  of  the  summer  of  32.  After  months 
of  preparation  of  the  ground,  Octavian  and  his 
advisers  decided,  probably  in  July,  to  bring  the 
whole  of  Italy  to  take  the  solemn  oath  known  as 
the  conjuratio,  which  was  considered  justifiable 
only  by  imminent  danger  to  the  fatherland. 
In  the  record  of  his  deeds  drawn  up  by  the  Em- 
peror Augustus,  of  which  the  sole  surviving 
example,  discovered  in  170 1  at  Angora  in  Asia 
Minor,  is  known  as  the  monument  of  Ancyra, 
Augustus  boasts  that  "  The  whole  of  Italy 
of  its  own  accord  took  the  oath  to  me  and  called 
upon  me  to  lead  it  in  the  war  in  which  I  was 
victorious  at  Actium."  One  is  reminded  of  the 
phrase  "  as  lying  as  an  epitaph,"  for  it  was  by  no 

234 


THE    PRELUDE    TO    ACTIUM 

means  without  opposition  that  the  oath  was 
extorted  from  some  of  the  Italian  towns,  and 
Bononia  refused  altogether  to  take  it.  However, 
Octavian  was  sufficiently  encouraged  by  the 
manner  in  which  Italy  submitted  to  the  conjuratio 
to  consider  that  he  had  a  warrant  from  his 
countrymen  to  make  war.  He  only  awaited  the 
opening  of  the  New  Year,  with  the  change  of 
consuls,  to  proceed  to  a  formal  declaration. 
In  the  meantime  Agrippa  put  off  from  the  Italian 
coast  and  began  to  reconnoitre  in  the  direction 
of  Greece. 

As  soon  as  January  arrived,  while  Antony  and 
Cleopatra  still  remained  at  Patrae,  Octavian  took 
the  last  step  necessary  before  invading  Greece. 
On  the  first  of  the  month  Antony  was  stripped  by 
Senate  and  People  of  the  extraordinary  authority 
which  had  been  his  since  the  formation  of 
the  Triimivirate  in  43 —  "  the  authority  which 
he  had  surrendered  to  Cleopatra,"  says  Plutarch 
— and  was  further  pronounced  unworthy  to  be 
consul  for  the  coming  year,  as  had  been  arranged 
between  him  and  Octavian  at  Tarentum.  Those 
Romans  who  were  with  him  were  invited  to  leave 
him  before  the  fighting  began,  and  in  order  to 
show  that  this  was  not  a  civil  war,  Octavian 
went  through  the  ceremonies  only  observed 
before  attacking  a  foreign  enemy.  In  the  robes 
of  a  Fetial  priest,  he  stood  in  front  of  the  temple 
of  Bellona  in  the   Campus  Martius  and  threw 

235 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

the  javelin.  It  was  against  Cleopatra  that  war 
was  declared.  Plutarch  adds  the  information 
that  Octavian  declared  that  Antony  was  out 
of  his  senses  owing  to  the  philtres  administered 
to  him  by  Cleopatra,  and  that  "  those  against 
whom  the  Romans  had  to  fight  were  Mardion 
the  eunuch  and  Potheinos*  and  Iras,  Cleopatra's 
tirewoman,  and  Charmion,  the  directors  of  all 
affairs  of  importance." 

If  this  speech,  put  into  his  mouth,  represents 
any  actual  words  of  his,  Octavian  appears  to 
have  been  eager  to  impress  on  his  followers 
that  it  was  a  very  contemptible  foe  against 
whom  they  were  starting  out  to  fight,  and  scarcely 
to  have  troubled  about  consistency  ;  for  it  was 
the  army  directed  by  this  pack  of  women  and 
eunuchs  which,  according  to  the  former  stories 
spread  by  his  friends,  menaced  the  very  Capitol 
of  Rome. 


*  Can  the  name  Potheinos  refer  to  Cleopatra's  old  enemy 
at  Alexandria  ?  He  appears  to  have  made  so  great  an 
impression  on  the  Romans  as  to  be  endowed  by  them  \vith  an 
immortality  of  infamy.  But  there  may  have  been  a  later 
Potheinos  of  whom  we  do  not  hear  elsewhere. 


236 


CHAPTER  XIV 

EAST   AGAINST  WEST 

The  beginning  of  that  momentous  year  in  Euro- 
pean history,  31  B.C.,  found  Antony  and  Cleopatra 
still  in  their  Peloponnesian  winter  quarters, 
with  their  army  cantonned  along  the  western 
coast  of  Greece  from  the  Corinthian  Gulf  to  the 
promontory  of  Actium,  on  the  southern  side 
of  the  entrance  to  the  Ambracian  Gulf,  now 
known  as  the  Gulf  of  Arta.  A  naval  outpost 
was  stationed  at  Corcyra,  but  the  bulk  of  the  fleet 
wintered  in  the  Ambracian  Gulf,  whose  great 
size  and  narrow  mouth  made  it  a  safe  shelter 
from  storms  for  the  largest  navies.  The  Antonian 
forces  were  provisioned  from  Asia  Minor  and 
Egypt,  and  in  order  to  secure  his  communications, 
Antony  left  no  fewer  than  eleven  of  his  legions 
detached  from  his  main  army.  Of  these  four 
were  in  Egypt,  four  in  Cyrenaica  (where  it  was 
necessary  to  guard  against  an  attack  from 
Roman  Africa),  and  three  in  Sjria.  With  so 
large  an  army  as  he  had  under  his  command 
Antony  was  able  to  leave  all  these  legions  behind 
him,  and  still  met  his  rival  on  terms  of  numerical 

237 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

superiority.  The  idea  of  using  any  part  of  his 
immense  strength  for  the  purpose  of  creating 
a  diversion  seems  never  to  have  occurred  to 
him. 

Octavian's  forces  were  the  first  to  move  when 
the  advent  of  spring  permitted  naval  and  mihtary 
activity.  Octavian  estabUshed  himself  at  Brun- 
disium  with  his  army,  while  his  fleet  lay  between 
there  and  Tarentum,  and  his  faithful  Agrippa  led 
a  squadron  into  the  Ionian  Sea  and  began  cutting 
off  the  supplies  on  their  way  to  Greece  from^ 
Egypt.  Agrippa  also  made  as  though  to  descend 
upon  the  Peloponnesus,  which  may  account  for 
Antony's  delay  in  leaving  Patrae  for  the  North. 
Before  coming  to  close  quarters  the  two  chiefs 
resumed  their  acrimonious  correspondence  of 
the  year  before.  Octavian  wrote  from  Brun- 
disium,  begging  Antony  not  to  waste  time  but  to 
come  with  all  his  forces,  when  he  would  provide 
Antony's  ships  with  safe  harbours  and  retreat 
with  his  army  one  day's  ride  from  the  sea  until 
Antony  had  landed.  "  Antony  answered  this 
boastful  language  in  like  strain,  challenging 
Caesar  [Octavian]  to  single  combat,  although 
he  was  older  than  Caesar  ;  and  if  he  declined  this 
he  proposed  that  they  should  decide  the  matter 
with  their  armies  at  Pharsalia,  as  [Julius]  Caesar 
and  Pompey  had  done  before."*  Octavian  so 
far  accepted  the  second  part  of  Antony's  invita- 

*  Plutarch,  "  Antony,"  62. 
238 


EAST   AGAINST   WEST 

tion  that  he  set  sail  from  Bnindisium  and,  taking 
Corc5n:a  on  his  way,  reached  the  coast  of  Epirus 
and  proceeded  to  disembark  his  army  at  the  town 
of  Toryne  in  Epirus.  With  him  he  brought  not 
only  his  troops  and  fleet,  but  also  the  whole  of  the 
Senate  except  those  with  Antony.  The  presence 
of  these  seven  or  eight  hundred  aristocrats  from 
Rome  was  a  demonstration  that  it  was  his  party 
which  represented  the  Republic  ;  and  was  also 
(as  M.  Bouch6-Leclercq  remarks)  a  sure  way  of 
guaranteeing  the  fidelity  of  Italy. 

The  sudden  vigorous  action  of  Octavian  seems 
to  have  taken  Antony  by  surprise,  and  the  latter's 
friends  were  in  consternation  at  the  unhindered 
landing  of  the  enemy  in  Epirus.  Cleopatra  en- 
deavoured to  raise  their  spirits  by  a  jest,  which 
Plutarch  records  and  which  we  must  suppose  a 
genuine  utterance,  since  it  is  certainly  not  brilliant 
enough  to  have  been  worth  inventing  afterwards. 
"  What  does  it  matter  if  Caesar  is  sitting  on  a 
ladle  ?  "  she  asked,  Toryne  meaning  a  ladle.  It 
is  unfortunate  that  we  have  not  some  better  and 
less  obscure  example  than  this  preserved  of  the 
verbal  wit  for  which  Cleopatra  was  famed. 
Antony,  however,  took  the  invasion  of  Greece 
more  seriously  than  his  consort.  He  left  Patrae 
hurriedly,  and,  sending  orders  to  all  his  forces 
in  Greece  to  proceed  to  Actium,  made  his  own 
way  thither.  In  March  he  had  established  his 
headquarters  on   the  promontory   south  of  the 

239 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

Ambracian  Gulf,  while  Octavian,  leaving  the 
"  ladle,"  had  come  down  as  far  as  the  northern 
shore  of  the  same  gulf. 

Plutarch  in  his  summary  of  the  forces  fighting 
on  both  sides  in  the  campaign  of  Actium  attributes 
to  Antony  five  hundred  warships,  including  many 
with  no  less  than  eight  or  ten  banks  of  oars,  one 
hundred  thousand  infantry,  and  twelve  thousand 
cavalry.  The  allied  kings  under  his  banner  were 
Bogud  of  Mauretania,  Tarkondimotos  of  Upper 
Cilicia,  Archelaos  of  Cappadocia,  Philadelphos  of 
Paphlagonia,  Deiotarus  (son  of  Cicero's  client) 
and  Amyntas  of  Galatia,  Mithridates  of  Com- 
magene,  and  Sadalas  of  Thrace.  Contingents  were 
also  furnished  by  the  kings  of  Armenia  and 
Pontus,  by  the  Arab  chief  Malchus,  and  by  Herod 
the  Great.  Herod  would  have  been  present  in 
person,  had  it  not  been  that  he  was  engaged,  by 
Antony's  orders,  in  chastising  the  Nabathaean 
Arabs  for  failing  to  pay  their  tribute  to  Cleopatra. 
As  Renan,  following  Josephus,  points  out,  Cleo- 
patra unwittingly  did  a  great  service  to  her  old 
enemy  Herod,  for  his  absence  from  Actium  made 
it  easier  for  him  to  gain  Octavian's  pardon 
afterwards,  and  to  secure  his  position  on  the 
throne  of  Judaea. 

Octavian's  forces  are  given  by  Plutarch  as  two 
hundred  and  fifty  warships,  eighty  thousand 
infantry,  and  twelve  thousand  cavalry.  They 
were  thus  inferior,  both  on  sea  and  on  land,  to 

240 


EAST    AGAINST    WEST 

the  Antonians.  Antony's  naval  superiority,  how- 
ever, as  we  shall  see,  was  more  apparent  than  real. 
As  regards  his  army,  his  numerical  advantage  and 
the  wide  experience  of  his  legionaries  were  counter- 
balanced to  a  great  extent  by  the  presence  of  so 
large  a  body  of  allies,  far  inferior  to  Roman  and 
Roman-trained  troops.  But  what  reduced  the 
disparity  in  numbers,  such  as  it  was,  to  insignifi- 
cance was  the  difference  in  leadership  between 
forces.  Octavian,  poor  and  dilatory  warrior  as 
he  always  was  either  by  land  or  by  sea,  had 
Agrippa's  fine  brain  to  supply  his  deficiencies 
in  the  art  of  war.  Antony,  now  reduced  to  a 
mere  shadow  of  the  great  general  that  he  had 
once  been,  had  no  doubt  many  able  officers  under 
him,  but  the  only  adviser  to  whom  he  would  listen 
was  Cleopatra,  whose  interests  in  the  campaign 
were  not  the  same  as  his  own  ;  at  least  they  were 
not  the  interests  of  Antony  the  Roman.  In 
spite  of  the  accusations  of  the  Augustan  writers, 
it  is  not  at  all  probable  that  Cleopatra  was 
desirous  of  "  administering  justice  on  the  Capitol." 
She  wished  above  all  to  preserve  the  Egyptian 
Empire  which  had  been  handed  down  to  her, 
the  last  of  the  Lagidae.  She  was  not  likely  to 
gain  her  end  by  surrendering  Antony  to  the 
Roman  nobles  who  had  fled  to  him  at  Ephesus. 
If  Antony  was  to  conquer,  he  must  conquer  as 
her  consort,  and  not  in  such  a  way  as  immediately 
after  victory  to  be  forced  to  leave  her  and  devote 

241 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

himself  to  the  governance  of  Rome.*  She  there- 
fore kept  away  from  him  as  much  as  possible  all 
such  Romans  as  she  had  not  secured  to  herself 
— all  those,  in  fact,  who  were  Hkely  to  advise 
him  for  his  real  advantage.  Unable  herself  to 
become  the  brain  of  his  army,  she  reduced  it  to 
the  state  of  a  patient  in  one  of  those  cases  which 
occasionally  come  imder  the  observation  of 
medical  men,  when  owing  to  an  injury  to  the 
head  the  brain  has  ceased  to  work  properly,  and 
its  place  has  been  usurped  by  lower  nerve-centres, 
leading  to  a  multiplication  of  personalities  in 
the  same  bodj^ 

It  was  in  March  that  the  armies  of  Octavian 
and  Antony  first  confronted  one  another  across 
the  Ambracian  Gulf,  while  Antony's  fleet  held  the 
Gulf  and  Agrippa  cruised  outside.  For  over  five 
months  the  general  position  remained  roughly  the 
same,  but  there  were  frequent  changes  of  attitude 
on  the  part  of  the  two  antagonists  which  are  per- 

♦  Professor  Ferrero  sees  Cleopatra  beginning  to  find  as 
much  reason  for  dread  of  victory  as  for  dread  of  defeat, 
and  trying  to  stop  the  war  and  get  Antony  back  to  Eg3rpt 
to  found  there  openly  a  new  dynasty,  leaving  Italy  and  the 
European  provinces  to  Octavian,  who,  if  he  claimed  to  reunite 
the  Empire,  must  come  to  the  East  to  fight.  "  Cleopatra 
in  fact  would  have  liked  to  bring  about  definitely  that 
separation  of  the  Eastern  and  the  Western  Empires  which 
Antony  had  only  outlined"  (IV.  210-1.)  As  the  Professor 
will  have  that  Antony  "  was  neither  madly  in  love  with 
Cleopatra  nor  bewitched  by  her,"  he  finds  it  difficult  to 
imagine  by  what  artifices  or  sophisms  Cleopatra  succeeded 
in  converting  him  to  her  plan.  It  is  indeed  difficult  to  do 
so  if  we  consider  Antony  still  what  he  was  of  old — and  if 
we  consider  him  always  a  great  statesman. 

242 


EAST    AGAINST    WEST 

plexing  to  follow  in  the  accounts  of  the  ancient 
historians.  Octavian  on  his  arrival  north  of  the 
Gulf  seemed  anxious  to  "  decide  the  matter  with 
their  armies,"  as  Antony  had  challenged  him  to 
do.  But  Antony  had  not  yet  brought  together 
again  all  his  troops  from  their  winter  quarters  and 
was  unready  to  give  battle  at  once.  Plutarch  says 
that  "  Antony  was  so  mere  an  appendage  to 
Cleopatra  that,  though  he  had  a  great  superiority 
on  land,  he  wished  the  decision  to  rest  with  the 
nav}^  to  please  Cleopatra."  His  navy,  however, 
was  unable  to  put  to  sea.  It  was  indeed  almost 
caught  unprepared  by  Octavian  when  he  reached 
the  northern  shore  of  the  Ambracian  Gulf.  The 
unhealthiness  of  the  winter  in  the  Gulf,  which 
Antony  and  Cleopatra  themselves  had  escaped  by 
going  south  to  Patrae,  had  reduced  by  a  third  the 
crews  of  his  ships,  and  it  was  necessary  to  resort 
to  the  press-gang  among  the  unfortunate  inhabi- 
tants of  Greece  ("  which  had  indeed  suffered 
much,"  says  the  Greek  Plutarch)  to  fill  up  the 
vacancies.  But  even  the  impressment  of  stray 
travellers,  muleteers,  farm-hands,  and  boys  could 
not  make  the  Antonian  fleet  fit  for  battle  yet,  if 
it  were  strong  enough  to  avert  all  danger  of  the 
enemy  forcing  the  narrow  entrance  to  its  harbour 
of  refuge.  Agrippa  was  therefore  left  practically 
master  of  the  Ionian  Sea. 

Owing  no  doubt  to  this  impotence  of  the  fleet, 
the  Roman  nobles  in  Antony's  camp  began  to 

243 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

make  their  influence  felt  in  spite  of  Cleopatra's 
opposition,  and  for  a  moment  it  appeared  as  if 
Antony  were  becoming  a  soldier  again.  He  sent 
out  Dellius  and  Amyntas  the  Galatian  to  gather 
reinforcements  in  Macedonia  and  Thrace,  and 
tried  to  shut  Octavian  up  in  the  peninsula  on 
which  he  had  established  his  camp  and  to  force 
him  through  want  of  drinking-water  to  risk  a 
battle  against  superior  numbers.  But  a  series 
of  disasters  befell  the  Antonians.  A  cavalry 
engagement  went  in  favour  of  Octavian,  whereon 
King  Deiotarus  went  over  to  the  victors.  His 
fellow-Galatian  followed  his  example,  instead  of 
performing  the  task  entrusted  to  him  by  Antony, 
and  appeared  in  Octavian' s  camp  with  his  two 
thousand  auxiliary  cavalry.*  Worse  still,  the 
consul  Domitius  Ahenobarbus,  whose  presence 
with  Antony  was  in  itself  a  protest  against 
Octavian' s  claim  to  be  fighting  in  the  cause  of 
Rome  against  a  foreign  foe,  vanished  from 
Actium  and  left  it  in  no  doubt  that  he  had 
abandoned  the  Antonian  party  in  disgust. 
Antony  attempted  to  minimise  the  effect  of  this 
desertion  by  giving  out  that  Ahenobarbus  had  de- 
parted because  he  found    himself  unable  to  do 

*  It  is  to  this  incident  to  which  Horace  is  supposed  to 
allude  in  Epode  17,  although  there  appears  no  reason  why 
the  allusion  should  not  be  to  Deiotarus,  whose  followers 
were  equally  "  Galli."  Professor  Ferrero  places  the  deser- 
tion of  Amyntas,  like  that  of  Dellius,  only  two  days  before 
Actium. 

244 


EAST   AGAINST   WEST 

without  his  mistress  Servilia,  whom  he  had  left 
in  Rome.  He  also  took  care  to  send  the  fugi- 
tive's baggage  and  slaves  after  him,  behaving 
with  magnanimity  in  the  eyes  of  Plutarch,  who 
adds  :  "  Domitius  indeed,  as  if  he  repented  after 
the  discovery  of  his  treachery,  died  immediately." 
Ahenobarbus  had  been  ill  with  fever  when  he 
quitted  Actium,  and  we  learn  in  Suetonius's 
"  Nero  "  that  he  died  a  few  days  after  his  coming 
to  Octavian. 

At  sea  even  heavier  blows  were  suffered  by  the 
Antonians.  Hopes  had  been  entertained  that 
with  the  aid  of  reinforcements  from  the  south  the 
navy  would  be  strong  enough  to  put  out  from  the 
Ambracian  Gulf  and  fight  that  naval  battle  for 
which  Cleopatra  was  pressing.  But  Agrippa  went 
to  meet  the  reinforcements  and  cut  them  off,  fol- 
lowing up  his  success  by  seizing  Antony's  recent 
winter  residence  in  the  Peloponnese.  He  then 
came  back  and  defeated  near  Actium  the  consul 
remaining  with  Antony,  Sosius,  who  had  ven- 
tured to  come  out  from  the  Gulf  with  part  of 
the  fleet.  Combined  with  his  ill-success  on  land, 
these  naval  defeats  weakened  Antony's  position 
at  Actium  considerably,  and  he  was  now  the 
blockaded  rather  than  the  blockader.  It  looked 
as  if  he  might  be  forced  to  cut  his  way  through 
the  enemy  on  land.  His  chief  officer  Canidius 
(who,  it  will  be  remembered,  had  been  induced 
by    Cleopatra    to    take    her    side    at    Ephesus) 

245 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

"  changed  his  mind  at  the  sight  of  the  danger," 
says  Plutarch,  "  and  advised  Antony  to  send 
Cleopatra  away  to  Egypt  and  retreating  to 
Thrace  or  Macedonia  to  decide  matters  by  a 
battle  there."  Promises  of  aid  were  held  out  by 
the  Dacians.  But  Antony  remained  passive,  and 
seemed  incapable  either  of  independent  thought 
or  of  adopting  the  plans  of  others.  He  appeared 
as  if  possessed  by  panic.  Unstrung  by  the 
desertions,  he  agreed  to  the  torture  and  execution 
of  lamblichus  of  Emesa,  one  of  his  Syrian  allies, 
and  suffered  a  Roman  Senator,  Quintus  Postu- 
mius  to  be  torn  to  pieces.  He  could  not  even 
trust  Cleopatra.  Pliny  preserves  the  story  of 
his  fear  at  this  period  lest  she  should  be  plotting 
to  do  away  with  him  and  of  the  lesson  which 
Cleopatra  taught  him.  At  a  banquet  (for  there 
was  of  course  no  cessation  of  banquets  at  Actium) 
she  took  from  her  head  a  wreath  of  flowers  and 
dipped  it  into  a  cup  of  wine,  which  she  handed 
to  Antony.  He  raised  the  cup  to  his  lips  and 
was  about  to  drink,  when  she  told  him  that  the 
wreath  was  poisoned.  He  might  see  therefore 
how  easy  it  would  have  been  for  her  to  remove 
him  "  if  she  could  have  done  without  him." 
Cleopatra's  wit,  however,  does  not  appear  to 
have  been  able  to  kill  his  suspicions,  if  those 
suspicions  on  their  part  did  not  kill  his  love. 

Antony  really  ran  a  risk,  but  of  a  very  different 
kind.     Plutarch  tells  how  he  used  to  pass  along 

246 


EAST    AGAINST    WEST 

the  lines  leading  from  his  camp  to  the  naval 
station,  with  no  apprehension  of  danger.  Octavian 
was  informed  of  this  and  of  the  chance  of  seizing 
him  as  he  passed.  Some  men  were  sent  to  lie 
in  wait  for  him,  but  they  sprang  out  of  their 
ambush  too  soon  and  only  captured  a  man  walking 
in  front  of  him,  while  Antony  himself  escaped 
by  rimning  for  his  life. 

This  story  seems  to  indicate  that  the  blockade  of 
Antony's  camp  had  become  very  close.  The 
months  which  had  elapsed  since  first  the  two 
armies  had  faced  one  another  across  the  waters 
of  the  Gulf  had  aU  gone  in  favour  of  Octavian, 
and  it  is  probable  that  by  August  Antony  began 
to  find  his  supplies  running  short.  Some  means 
of  escape  from  an  untenable  position  must  be 
discovered.  Plutarch  only  sees  the  hand  of 
Cleopatra  in  the  decision  as  to  means.  "  The 
advice  of  Cleopatra  prevailed,"  he  says,  "  that 
the  war  should  be  settled  by  a  naval  battle, 
although  she  was  already  contemplating  flight 
and  making  arrangements  not  with  a  view  to- 
victory  but  to  secure  the  best  retreat  when  all 
should  be  lost."  Leaving  aside  for  the  moment 
the  question  of  Cleopatra's  treachery  to  Antony, 
we  may  ask  whether  at  this  stage  it  was  any 
longer  possible  to  carry  out  Canidius's  proposal 
for  a  break  into  Macedonia  or  Thrace.  The 
scanty  details  which  we  have  seem  to  show  that 
this  was  impossible  or  at  least  very  hazardous.. 

247 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

It  would  have  involved,  moreover,  leaving  the 
navy  bottled  up  in  the  Ambracian  Gulf.  Cleo- 
patra might  with  good  reason  object  to  the 
sacrifice  of  her  portion  of  the  fleet,  and  it  is  hard 
to  believe  that  Antony  would  have  been  justified 
in  abandoning  all  his  ships  even  if  he  felt  confident 
of  success  on  land.  The  anxiety  of  his  army  that 
the  decision  should  be  left  to  them  is  intelligible, 
but  certainly  fails  to  prove  that  Antony  would 
have  done  well  to  listen  only  to  his  troops. 

The  battle  of  Actium  presents  a  problem  which 
has  puzzled  historians  from  the  First  Century  a.d. 
to  the  present  day.  All  are  agreed  that  Antony 
and  Cleopatra  were  jointly  responsible  for  the 
plan  upon  which  the  battle  was  fought,  although 
there  is  no  such  unanimity  as  to  what  that  plan 
was.  Of  the  two  most  trustworthy  ancient 
writers,  Plutarch  does  not  commit  himself  to  any 
statement  that  Antony  intended  to  desert 
Actium  for  Egypt,  but  he  notes  the  suspicious 
circumstance  that  he  ordered  his  ships  to  go 
out  to  battle  with  their  sails  on  board.  Cleo- 
patra's flight  he  attributes  to  selfish  fear  for  her 
life,  and  Antony's  pursuit  of  her  to  a  lover's 
infatuation.  Dion  Cassius  makes  the  two  agree 
upon  escaping  to  Egypt,  if  possible,  only  putting 
up  so  much  of  a  fight  as  was  necessary  to  cover  j 
the  retreat.  Then,  with  apparent  inconsistency, 
in  his  account  of  the  battle  he  speaks  of  Cleo- 
patra's sudden  panic,  which  communicated  itself 

248 


EAST    AGAINST    WEST 

to  Antony  and  led  to  the  flight  of  both.  Of 
modem  writers,  M.  Bouche-Leclercq  gives  the 
clearest  exposition  of  events.  Inclining  to  Dion's 
first  view,  he  says  :  "  The  plan  of  embarking  his 
best  troops  on  the  fleet,  forcing  the  blockade,  and 
going  to  seek  elsewhere,  perhaps  in  Egypt,  a  more 
favourable  situation  and  new  chances  of  success, 
was  a  plan  which  the  circumstances  of  the  case  as 
much  as  Cleopatra  must  have  suggested  to 
Antony."  "  Still,"  he  adds,  "  if  there  was  a  plan 
of  escape  agreed  upon  between  Antony  and 
Cleopatra — as  is  only  probable — it  must  be 
admitted  that  it  was  carried  out  in  extraordinary 
fashion,  and  that  both  of  them  had  sudden 
inspirations,  unforeseen  in  their  scheme."*  To 
this  point  we  must  return  later. 

It  was  almost  the  end  of  August  before  Antony 
decided  to  attempt  to  release  himself  from  his 
position  at  Actium.  On  the  29th  he  gave  orders 
to  prepare  for  a  sea-fight.  As  a  preliminary  he 
burnt  all  such  ships  as  he  could  not  man  or  did 
not  consider  seaworthy,  including  all  but  sixty  of 
the  Egyptian  squadron.     He  kept  three  hundred,! 

*  "  Histoire  des  Lagides,"  II.  pp.  307  flf. 

t  Plutarch  at  least  says  that  at  Actium  "  there  were  taken 
three  hundred  ships,  as  Caesar  records  "  ("  Antony,"  68). 
Orosius  states  that  Antony  kept  only  one  hundred  and 
seventy  big  ships.  There  is  a  similar  uncertainty  as  to  the 
number  of  Octavian's  ships  at  Actium.  Plutarch  quotes 
no  figure,  but  suggests  ("  Antony,"  66)  that  they  were  more 
numerous  than  Antony's.  Florus  gives  Octavian  four 
hundred,  smaller  in  size  than  Antony's,  and  Orosius  two 
hundred  and  sixty. 

249 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

and  on  the  largest  and  best  of  them  he  commanded 
twenty  thousand  heavy-armed  infantry  and  two 
thousand  bowmen  to  embark.  The  order  was  re- 
ceived with  great  sorrow  by  his  soldiers.  An  old 
centurion,  bearing  the  scars  of  many  wounds,  said 
to  him,  with  tears  in  his  eyes  :  "  General,  why  do 
you  distrust  these  wounds  and  this  sword  and  rest 
your  hopes  upon  miserable  timbers  ?  Let  the 
Egyptians  and  Phoenicians  fight  by  sea,  but  let  us 
have  the  land,  on  which  we  are  accustomed  to  die 
standing  or  conquer  the  enemy  !  "  Not  being 
acquainted  with  Antony's  scheme,  his  veterans 
could  not  comprehend  his  despoiling  of  their 
ranks  as  though  the  army  were  but  an  adjunct  to 
the  fleet.  He  merely  answered  them  with  an 
encouraging  smile  and  a  wave  of  the  hand, 
while  he  met  his  captains'  astonishment  at  the 
command  to  put  their  sails  on  board  by  saying 
that  he  did  not  wish  a  single  one  of  the  enemy  to 
escape. 

Even  more  likely  to  betray  the  scheme  than  this 
shipping  of  the  sails  would  have  been  the  fact  that 
Cleopatra  had  all  her  personal  treasure  put  on 
board  her  own  vessels.  But  this  was  done  by 
night,  secretly,  according  to  Dion.  And  as  if  to 
discourage  the  idea  that  the  struggle  on  land  was 
to  be  discontinued,  an  assault  was  delivered  on 
Octavian's  camp  on  August  30th.  It  was  not 
pressed  home,  however  ;  for  all  that  Antony  was 
doing  was  waiting  for  a  subsidence  of  the  sea  and 

250 


EAST    AGAINST    WEST 

wind,  which  prevented  naval  movements  over  the 
end  of  the  month.  At  last  on  September  2nd  a 
calm  sea  and  absence  of  wind  permitted  the 
Antonian  warships  to  make  their  way  through 
the  neck  of  the  Ambracian  Gulf,  little  more  than 
half  a  mile  wide,  in  the  direction  of  the  open  sea. 
Antony  himself  was  rowed  round  the  fleet  in  a 
small  boat,  visiting  every  vessel  and  putting  heart 
into  his  soldiers  and  the  ships'  captains.  In 
spite  of  the  deterioration  of  his  mental  powers, 
he  still  retained  his  followers'  trust  and  affection, 
as  was  shown  by  the  gallant  fight  which  they 
were  to  make  that  day  and  by  their  unwillingness 
to  believe  that  he  had  deserted  them. 

Octavian  was  prepared  for  his  opponent's 
sortie  from  the  Gulf,  though  it  is  uncertain 
whether  or  not  he  was  given  a  clue  to  the  real 
object  of  it  by  the  last  batch  of  deserters  who 
came  to  him  from  the  Antonian  camp.  Among 
these  was  Dellius,  performing  the  last  change  of 
face  in  his  versatile  career.  Dellius  is  said, 
perhaps,  on  the  authority  of  his  own  history  of 
the  war,  to  have  been  warned  that  Cleopatra  had 
designs  against  his  life.  It  was  hardly  necessary 
for  him  to  find  excuses  for  an  action  so  consistent 
with  his  whole  record.  He  was  welcomed  by 
Octavian,  to  whom  he  may  possibly  have  been 
in  a  position  to  impart  some  information  about 
Antony's  preparations.  It  is  extremely  unlikely, 
however,    that    he     knew     positively     of     any 

251 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

design  to  retreat  to  Egypt  under  cover  of  a  sea- 
fight.* 

The  course  of  the  battle  of  Actium  up  to  the 
incident  which  made  it  so  famous  in  history  need 
only  be  described  very  briefly  here.  Octavian's 
fleet  waited  in  the  open  sea  for  Antony  to  emerge 
from  the  neck  of  the  Gulf,  Octavian  himself  com- 
manding the  right  wing  and  Agrippa  the  left. 
Antony  was  on  the  right  of  his  fleet,  Sosius  on  the 
left,  and  Cleopatra  with  her  sixty  Egyptian  ships 
in  the  rear.  The  Antonians  were  slow  in  leaving 
the  straits,  but  at  the  sixth  hour,  as  a  sea  wind 
was  getting  up,  the  left  wing  became  impatient  and 
began  to  move  forward.  Octavian  drew  back  his 
ships  to  lead  the  enemy  on,  and  gradually  the  fight 
grew  general.  Owing  to  the  great  size  of  Antony's 
vessels  and  the  smallness  and  speed  of  Octavian's 
the  battle  somewhat  resembled  that  between  the 
English  Admirals  and  the  Spanish  Armada  in 
1588.  It  was  still  more  like  the  battle  of  Prevesa 
in  September  1538,  when  near  the  same  Gulf  of 
Arta  the  corsair  Barbarossa  with  his  light  cruisers 
defeated  Andrea  Doria  and  the  great  warships 

*  Professor  Ferrero  thinks  that  DelUus  deserted  on  August 
31st,  and  that  he  divined  that  the  fight  would  only  be  a  feint 
and  that  his  Roman  supporters  would  be  abandoned  by 
Antony.  But  the  actual  plan,  though  doubtless  long  dis- 
cussed between  Antony  and  Cleopatra,  was  strictly  con- 
cealed, especially  from  the  Roman  party.  M.  Bouch6- 
Leclercq  says  that  the  scheme  had  only  been  improvised 
on  the  eve  of  the  battle,  but  that  Dellius  was  sufficiently 
intimate  with  his  chiefs  to  be  able  to  foresee  it  before  he 
left  them. 

252 


EAST    AGAINST    WEST 

of  the  Venetians  and  their  allies.  Octavian  and 
Agrippa  avoided  the  charges  of  the  heavy  galleons 
and  endeavoured  by  use  of  their  superior  pace 
and  agility  to  concentrate  the  attention  of  three 
or  four  of  their  ships  against  one  of  the  enemy. 
But  Antony's  hulls  had  been  specially  protected 
by  balks  of  timber  fastened  together  with  iron, 
and  towers  on  the  decks  enabled  the  defenders 
to  discharge  their  missiles  on  the  heads  o  f  the 
boarding-parties.  So  matters  went  on,  victory 
inclining  to  neither  side,  until  Cleopatra's 
disastrous  intervention  on  the  scene. 

The  afternoon  was  wearing  on  and  the  breeze 
from  the  west-north-west,  Vergil's  lapyx,  was 
springing  up,  according  to  its  daily  wont  in  the 
Ionian  Sea,  when  a  stir  was  observed  behind  the 
main  portion  of  Antony's  fleet.  To  quote  from 
Plutarch's  graphic  story  of  the  battle,  "  all  at  once 
Cleopatra's  sixty  ships  were  seen  to  be  raising 
their  sails  for  the  purpose  of  escape  and  flying 
through  the  midst  of  the  combatants  ;  for  they 
were  stationed  behind  the  big  ships  and  by  making 
their  way  through  them  they  caused  confusion. 
The  enemy  watched  them  wonderingly  as  they 
took  advantage  of  the  wind  and  shaped  their 
course  toward  the  Peloponnese."  Antony  now 
clearly  showed  the  truth  of  the  saying  that  the 
lover's  soul  dwells  in  another's  body,  continues 
Plutarch,  for  no  sooner  did  he  see  her  ship 
sailing    off    than,     forgetting    everything    and 

253 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

abandoning  those  who  were  fighting  and  dying 
for  him,  he  sprang  into  a  five  banked  galley 
and  started  in  pursuit.  Cleopatra,  recognizing 
him,  signalled  to  him  to  come  alongside  her 
flagship  and  took  him  on  board.  Plutarch  adds 
nothing  to  what  he  said  in  a  previous  chapter 
about  Cleopatra's  motive  in  flying  so  suddenly. 
Dion  Cassius  represents  that,  unable  to  support 
the  strain  of  the  indecisive  struggle  and  devoured 
by  impatience  and  anxiety,  she  took  to  flight 
and  gave  the  signal  to  her  subjects  to  do  the 
same  ;  whereupon  Antony,'*  persuaded  that  it 
was  not  Cleopatra's  order  but  fear  which  had 
compelled  them,  started  off  after  them.  Both 
writers  agree  in  making  Cleopatra  fly  without 
giving  warning  to  Antony  and  in  representing 
him  as  following  her  as  soon  as  he  saw  her 
leave. 

So,  before  the  battle  had.  been  won  or  lost — 
several  hours  indeed  before  fighting  ceased — the 
fate  of  the  war  was  determined.  The  second 
part  of  the  problem  of  Actium  remains  to  be 
considered.  All  the  circumstances  point  to  Dion 
Cassius  being  correct  in  attributing  to  Antony 
and  Cleopatra  a  set  plan  of  cutting  their  way 
through  the  blockade  and  making  for  Egypt, 
especially  the  two  facts  mentioned  by  Plutarch 
(who  speaks  of  no  such  plan  and  is  therefore 
making  out  no  case),  namely,  the  putting  on 
board  of  the  sails  and  the  embarkation  of  Cleo- 

254 


EAST   AGAINST   WEST 

patra's  treasure.  So,  too,  does  tne  complete 
inactivity  of  Canidius's  army  during  the  sea- 
fight,  for  if  the  attempt  to  run  the  blockade 
should  fail  it  was  necessary  to  have  the  land 
position  on  the  Ambracian  Gulf  intact.  If  then 
we  may  take  for  granted  a  set  plan  before  the 
battle,  to  what  must  be  attributed  its  mis- 
carriage ?  Did  Cleopatra  yield  to  a  sudden 
panic  and  start  prematurely,  taking  along  with 
her  the  Egyptian  contingent  and  leaving  the 
rest  of  the  fleet  to  their  fate  ? 

It  would  be  easy  to  adopt  Plutarch's  theory  of 
an  entirely  selfish  motive  for  Cleopatra's  action, 
in  which  case  her  flight  could  scarcely  be  called 
premature  ;  for  she  would  then  be  deliberately 
betraying  Antony.  But,  as  we  shall  see  when 
we  come  to  the  general  question  of  Cleopatra's 
attitude  toward  Antony,*  the  evidence  for  her 
treachery  to  him  is  small.  Her  flight  from 
Actium,  moreover,  was  sufficiently  slow  to  enable 
him  to  overtake  her  flagship  before  it  had  got  out 
of  touch  with  the  enemy,  and  she  recognized 
him  and  signalled  to  him  to  come  on  board. 
Dion's  suggestion  of  a  nervous  breakdown  on 
the  part  of  Cleopatra  is  more  convincing  and 
is  not  really  contradictory  of  his  previous  state- 
ment about  the  scheme  of  escape  with  the 
fleet.  Cleopatra,  although  she  had  been  in 
battle  before,  had  never  been  in  a  sea-fight  and 

♦  See  below,  p.   320. 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

may  well  have  become  alarmed,  strong-minded 
as  she  was  in  the  face  of  most  dangers,  at  the 
terrific  contest  going  on  before  her  eyes.  She 
is  represented  as  having  been  upset  by  the  evil 
omens  which  had  appeared  (as  usual  in  Roman 
and  other  histories  alike)  to  presage  the  result 
of  the  war.  Among  those  which  the  careful 
Plutarch  records  are  the  destruction  by  lightning 
of  the  Herakleion  at  Patrae  while  Antony  was 
wintering  there  with  Cleopatra,  and  the  blowing 
down  of  the  figure  of  Dionysos  in  the  group  of 
the  "  Battle  with  the  Giants  "  at  Athens — Antony 
both  claiming  descent  from  Herakles  and  liking 
to  identify  himself  with  Dionysos.  But,  worse 
still,  some  swallows  which  had  made  their  nest 
under  the  stern  of  Cleopatra's  flagship,  called 
the  Antonias  in  honour  of  her  lover,  had  been 
evicted  by  other  swallows  and  their  nestlings 
destroyed !  That  such  trivialities  should  pro- 
duce any  effect  on  the  ancient  mind*  might 
cause  wonder  if  it  were  not  so  easy  to  find  modern 
parallels. 

It  is  not  unreasonable  to  suppose  that  Cleopatra 
sailed  out  to  battle  depressed  by  superstitious 
fear  and  that  the  first  hours  of  the  fight  completed 
the  destruction  of  her  courage.     She  knew  that 

*  The  ancients  could  occasionally  disregard  them,  as  in 
the  case  of  the  Roman  admiral  who,  told  by  his  soothsayer 
that  the  "  sacred  chickens  "  would  not  eat  their  grain,  an 
extremely  bad  omen,  said  that  if  they  would  not  eat  they 
should  drink  and  threw  them  into  the  sea. 

256 


EAST   AGAINST   WEST 

she  was  the  enemy  against  whom  Rome  had 
declared  war,  and  that  her  capture  meant  an 
ignominious  fate  for  her  and  her  children, 
especially  her  boy  Caesarion.  For  him  at  least 
the  end  of  the  nestlings  on  the  Antonias  must 
be  a  sure  omen,  when  Octavian  came  to  deal 
with  him.  If  she  could  escape  alive  to  Egypt, 
there  was  always  hope  of  a  recovery.  Her 
position  had  been  worse  in  48  when  she  fled  from 
Ptolemy  XIV  and  Potheinos,  and  at  least  as  bad 
in  43  when  Egypt  was  threatened  by  Cassius. 
When  the  lapygian  wind  sprang  up,  with  its 
promise  of  a  quick  journey  southward,  she  could 
not  resist  the  temptation  to  take  advantage  of 
it  at  once.  It  was  upon  this  wind  that  the 
escape  of  the  fleet,  planned  by  Antony  with  her, 
depended.  Anticipating  therefore  the  proper 
moment  for  the  manoeuvre  (which  should  pre- 
sumably have  been  chosen  by  Antony),  she 
hoisted  at  her  masthead  the  sign  for  the  Egyptain 
ships  to  turn  south  and  made  off  down  the 
breeze.  Knowing  Antony  as  she  did,  she  must 
have  expected  him  to  follow,  and  indeed  was 
apparently  in  no  way  surprised  that  he  did  so 
immediately.*     Antony's  pitiably  weak  state  of 

*|Professor  Ferrero,  it  should  be  noted,  considers  that  the 
sudden  joint  flight  was  probably  part  of  the  original  plan, 
and  that  Cleopatra  had  persuaded  Antony  at  the  last  moment 
to  agree  to  escape  as  soon  as  the  afternoon  wind  should  begin 
to  blow.  "  She  was  to  give  the  signal  by  advancing  her  little 
fleet,  even  if  the  battle  was  still  lasting  ;  Antony  was  to 
change  from  his  ship   to  a  five-banked   vessel   waiting  in 

257  9 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

mind  stood  clearly  revealed.  He  crowned  many 
months  of  incapacity  with  an  act  of  gross 
cowardice.  The  general  who  should  himself  have 
punished  deserters,  Velleius  Paterculus  remarks, 
was  himself  the  deserter  from  his  own  army. 
And  this  was  the  man  who  had  shown  himself  so 
brilliant  in  attack  at  Pharsalia  and  Philippi,  so 
great  in  retreat  at  Mutina  and  amid  the  snows 
of  Armenia.  Surely  no  more  terrible  example  of 
the  ruin  of  a  mind  has  ever  been  shown  by  any 
soldier  in  the  history  of  the  world. 

readiness  and  follow  her  ;  Canidius,  who  knew  their  intention 
and  who  had  command  of  the  remaining  troops  to  lead  to 
Asia,  was  to  give  the  signal  to  the  fleet  left  behind  to  follow 
them."  This  view  hardly  improves  the  case  for  the  defence 
of  Antony,  it  may  be  remarked. 


258 


CHAPTER  XV 

THE   "  DIE-TOGETHERS  " 

Taken  upon  Cleopatra's  ship,  Antony  made  no 
attempt  to  see  her.  Making  his  way  to  the 
prow,  he  sat  down  in  silence,  holding  his  head  in 
both  his  hands.  Neither  Cleopatra  nor  any  one 
else  on  board  ventured  to  break  in  upon  his 
misery.  Only  the  enemy  distracted  his  attention 
for  a  while.  Some  of  the  swift  cruisers  on  the 
model  known  as  "  Liburnian,"  which  did  such 
good  service  for  Octavian  at  Actium,  were  in 
pursuit  of  the  flying  Egyptian  squadron  and  came 
so  close  that  Antony  was  constrained  to  take 
notice  of  them.  He  ordered  the  Antonias  to  turn 
round  and  confront  the  foremost  Liburnians, 
fearing  no  doubt  that  with  their  rams  they  might 
crash  into  his  stern.  All  were  beaten  off  except 
one,  which  still  continued  the  pursuit.  Antony 
standing  at  the  prow  called  out  to  ask  who  it  was 
that  was  chasing  him.  "  Eurykles,  son  of 
Lachares,  come  to  avenge  my  father's  death," 
was  the  reply.  Lachares,  it  appears,  had  been 
executed  by  Antony  for  robbery.  His  son,  how- 
ever, failed  to  avenge  him,  for  (according  to 
Plutarch's  explanation)  there  were  in  the  Egyp- 
tian fleet  two   admiral-ships  with   brazen  beaks, 

259 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

and  he  charged  into  the  wrong  one.  This 
he  captured,  and  also  another  vessel  carrying  the 
royal  table-service,  while  the  Antonias  got  safely 
away.  When  the  danger  was  past,  Antony 
returned  to  his  former  attitude  near  the  prow, 
and  there  remained  three  whole  days  without 
moving.  At  the  end  of  the  three  days  the  ship 
reached  the  most  southerly  point  of  the  Pelopon- 
nesus, and  put  in  at  Cape  Taenarum,  where  a  halt 
was  made  in  order  to  allow  other  fugitives  from 
Actium  to  join  the  leaders. 

Here  at  Taenarum  Antony  and  Cleopatra  ex- 
changed their  first  words  since  they  had  sailed 
out  through  the  neck  of  the  Ambracian  Gulf  to 
battle.  Plutarch  says  that  the  women  who  were 
in  attendance  on  Cleopatra — such  as  Iras  and 
Charmion — "  first  brought  them  to  speak  to  one 
another  and  then  to  sup  and  sleep  together." 
Antony  had  hitherto  remained  on  the  spot  to 
which  he  had  gone  as  soon  as  he  set  foot  on  the 
Antonias,  plunged  in  stupor.  Cleopatra  we  must 
suppose  to  have  remained  out  of  sight,  perhaps 
too  prostrated  after  her  breakdown  on  September 
2nd  to  attempt  to  approach  her  lover.  It  is  clear 
from  Antony's  subsequent  conduct,  after  reaching 
the  African  coast  and  during  his  first  weeks  in 
Alexandria,  that  his  renewal  of  relations  with 
Cleopatra  at  Taenarum  did  not  lift  him  out  of 
the  melancholy  into  which  he  had  fallen  from  the 
moment  when  he  allowed  him.self  to  betray  his 

260 


THE    "  DIE-TOGETHERS  " 

own  cause  and  abandon  for  ever  his  career  as  a 
citizen  of  Rome.  But  for  one  or  two  brief  flickers 
before  the  final  darkness,  his  Hght  had  burnt  out. 
The  news  which  followed  him  to  Taenarum  was 
not  calculated  to  arouse  him  from  his  despon- 
dency. He  learnt  how  the  sea-fight  had  ended. 
Those  who  manned  the  fleet  for  the  most  part  had 
not  perceived  his  flight  or  had  refused  to  beUeve 
that  he  had  done  more  than  go  after  the  Egyptian 
squadron  to  bring  it  into  action  again.  The  battle 
had  continued  without  intermission  until  the 
tenth  hour,  and  then  the  Antonians,  if  roughly 
handled,  were  still  undefeated  and  had  lost  no 
more  than  five  thousand  men  in  the  four  hours 
of  fighting.  But  the  sea  was  running  heavily 
against  them  and  toward  nightfall  they  drew  off 
and  retired  within  the  entrance  to  the  Gulf. 
Next  morning  a  message  was  received  from 
Octavian  inviting  both  fleet  and  army  to  sur- 
render. With  this  suggestion  the  fleet  seems  to 
have  complied,  since  Antony  was  able  to  hear  of 
its  loss  at  Taenarum.  If  Antony  had  left  orders 
behind  for  it  to  follow  him  to  Egypt,  either  the 
orders  were  not  transmitted  or  else  the  realisation 
of  his  cowardice  left  his  seamen  unwilling  to  risk 
anything  more  on  his  behalf.  Some  few  of  the 
ships  must  have  been  able  to  escape  to  Taenarum, 
but  the  fleet  as  a  whole  yielded  itself  up  to 
Octavian.  The  land  forces,  still  intact  under 
the  command  of  Canidius,  to  the  number  of 
261 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

nineteen  legions  of  infantry  and  twelve  thousand 
cavalry,  rejected  the  enemy's  offer  and  continued 
to  expect  their  general  back  again.  "  So  much 
fidelity  and  courage  did  they  show,"  says 
Plutarch,  "  that  even  when  his  flight  was  well 
known  they  kept  together  seven  days  and  paid 
no  regard  to  Caesar's  messages  to  them."* 

Learning  that  the  troops  still  stood  firm, 
Antony  sent  an  order  overland  to  Canidius  to 
bring  them  back  through  Macedonia  to  Asia 
Minor,  and  then  continued  his  voyage  with 
Cleopatra  in  the  direction  of  Egypt.  The  fugitives 
reached  a  point  on  the  African  coast  near  Parae- 
tonium,  the  western  "  horn  "  of  Egypt,  corre- 
sponding to  Pelusium  on  the  eastern  frontier. 
From  here  he  sent  Cleopatra  to  Alexandria,  so 
that  she  might  arrive  before  the  news  of  Actium, 
while  he  remained  behind.  Plutarch  represents 
him  "  taking  his  fill  of  solitude,  wandering  about 
with  two  friends,  one  a  Greek  rhetorician,  Aristo- 
krates,  and  the  other  a  Roman,  Lucilius  " — a  man 
whom  he  had  spared  after  the  battle  of  Philippi 
because  he  had  shown  himself  so  loyal  a  friend  to 
Brutus.  It  is  impossible  that  Antony's  visit  to 
Paraetonium  was  unconnected  with  the  fact  that, 

*  It  is  difficult  to  comprehend  how  Professor  Ferrero  can 
write  that  Antony  "  abandoned  the  command  in  the  midst 
of  the  battle,  because  his  armies  revolted  and  deserted  him 
when  they  understood  what  he  had  not  dared  to  declare  to 
them  openly,"  i.e.  his  intention  of  founding  a  purely  Eastern 
Empire.     (Article  in  Putnam's  Magazine.^ 

262 


THE    "  DIE-TOGETHERS  " 

during  the  campaign  of  Actium,  he  had  left  four 
legions  in  Cjn-enaica,  whom  he  might  now  expect 
to  be  able  to  take  to  Alexandria,  But  here  the 
news  came  that  their  commander,  Pinarius,  had 
gone  over  with  them  to  Octavian's  adherent 
Cornelius  Gallus  (the  friend  to  whom  Vergil 
addresses  his  tenth  Eclogue),  who  had  proceeded 
straight  to  Roman  Africa  from  Actium  and  had 
communicated  the  result  of  the  battle  to  Pinarius. 
On  hearing  of  this  new  result  of  his  own  misdeeds, 
Antony  made  an  attempt  at  suicide.  His  friends, 
however,  stayed  his  hand  and  induced  him  to 
rejoin  Cleopatra  in  Alexandria. 

The  queen,  knowing  that  she  would  be  the  first 
refugee  from  Actium  to  reach  her  capital,  took 
vigorous  steps  to  secure  the  city  before  anything 
should  be  discovered.  While  Antony  was  in- 
dulging in  vain  melancholy  two  hundred  miles 
away,  she  put  on  a  brave  face.  Decorating  her 
ships  gaily,  she  sailed  into  the  harbour  with  music 
playing  and  every  indication  of  a  triumph  after 
victory.  Having  once  estabUshed  herself  in  the 
Palace  and  got  control  of  the  garrison,  she  was 
mistress  of  the  situation.  When  authentic  infor- 
mation of  the  disaster  penetrated  to  Alexandria,  it 
was  too  late  for  revolt,  and  all  seditious  mur- 
murers  were  promptly  punished  with  death — a 
fate  which,  according  to  Dion,  also  befell  many  of 
the  foremost  citizens  "  both  because  they  were 
always  discontented  with  her  and  because  they 
263 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

were  now  elated  at  her  misfortune."  If  there 
was  any  panic  now,  it  was  not  in  the  heart  of 
Cleopatra.  Back  in  her  realm  of  Egypt,  she 
recovered  the  courage  of  the  Lagid  women  which 
seemed  to  have  momentarily  deserted  her  on 
September  2nd.  Her  mind  was  full  of  schemes, 
and  she  had  no  scruples  about  the  means  of 
carrying  them  out.  The  unhappy  captive  king, 
Artavasdes  of  Armenia,  who  had  been  six  years 
a  captive  in  Alexandria  since  the  day  when  he  had 
walked  in  golden  chains  down  the  Canopic  Way 
to  the  temple  of  Serapis,  was  put  to  death,  and 
his  head  was  sent  to  his  Median  namesake.  Was 
this  because  she  contemplated  the  possibility  of 
proceeding  to  Asia  Minor  with  Antony  and 
effecting  a  junction  with  Canidius,  and  therefore 
wished  to  conciliate  the  Artavasdes  the  Mede  ? 
Another  plan  which  she  certainly  entertained — 
"  the  great  and  hazardous  undertaking  "  which, 
according  to  Plutarch,  Antony  found  her  con- 
templating when  he  arrived  from  Paraetonium — 
was  to  transport  all  the  Egyptian  warships  from 
the  Mediterranean  across  the  Isthmus  of  Suez 
into  the  Red  Sea,  and  to  sail  in  them  with  her 
treasure  and  troops  out  of  reach  of  war  and 
slavery.  The  isthmus  was  then  about  thirty-five 
miles  wide  in  its  narrowest  part,  and  the  transport 
had  actually  begun  when  Antony  came  back  to 
Alexandria.  Then  the  burning  by  the  Naba- 
thaean  Arabs  of  the  first  ships,  and  Antony's 

264 


THE   "  DIE-TOGETHERS  " 

belief  that  the  army  of  Canidius  still  held  out  and 
would  make  its  way  to  Asia  Minor,  induced 
Cleopatra  to  give  up  her  idea. 

All  such  schemes,  however,  required  money, 
and  while  the  punishment  of  some  of  those  fore- 
most citizens  who  had  been  unwise  enough  to 
show  their  joy  over  her  mishaps  enabled  her  to 
replenish  her  treasury  from  their  property,  she 
also  laid  hands  on  the  riches  of  the  temples.  So 
at  least  we  are  told  by  Dion,  who  says  that  she 
"  did  not  even  spare  the  hoUest  shrines."  Such 
conduct  is  at  variance  with  Cleopatra's  general 
behaviour  toward  the  native  religion,  as  far  as  we 
can  gather  from  the  manner  in  which  the  priest- 
hood supported  her  during  her  reign.  But  it  is 
of  course  true  that  her  position  was  so  desperate 
that  she  may  have  decided  to  risk  even  the  enmity 
of  the  priests  and  the  faithful  in  her  collection  of 
money  for  the  purpose  of  making  a  last  bid  for 
escape  from  the  power  of  Rome. 

In  the  midst  of  Cleopatra's  activity  at  Alexan- 
dria, Antony  rejoined  her  from  Paraetonium 
with  news  of  the  defection  of  the  legions  under 
Pinarius.  After  his  abortive  attempt  at  suicide, 
his  spirits  had  temporarily  revived,  and,  pointing 
out  that  there  was  still  the  army  left  behind  at 
Actium  to  be  considered,  he  induced  Cleopatra 
to  give  up  thoughts  of  looking  for  a  new  kingdom 
beyond  the  Red  Sea.  But  all  hopes  about  the 
army  of  Actium  were  soon  shattered.  Canidius 
265  9* 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

himself  appeared  in  Alexandria  to  announce  that 
it  existed  no  more. 

The  general  had  been  unable  to  carry  out  the 
order  to  lead  his  men  into  Macedonia  with  a  view 
to  crossing  to  Asia  Minor.  When  it  reached  him, 
indeed,  fresh  desertions  to  Octavian  had  already 
begun  among  the  Roman  nobles  still  in  the 
Antonian  camp  and  among  the  allied  kings. 
Canidius  may  not  have  felt  secure  against 
treachery  if  he  should  attempt  the  task  which 
Antony  himself  had  refused  and  make  an  effort  to 
break  through  the  encircling  army.  At  any  rate, 
he  declined  to  try  and  escaped  from  his  camp 
secretly.  The  soldiers'  loyalty,  which  had  sur- 
vived the  departure  of  Antony  and  the  sui  render 
of  the  fleet,  was  not  proof  against  this  last 
abandonment.  On  September  9th,  seven  days 
after  the  sea-fight,  the  whole  great  army  laid 
down  its  arms  and  yielded  to  Octavian  a  bloodless 
victory  on  land  to  follow  his  cheaply  purchased 
success  by  sea. 

All  of  Greece  was  at  once  Octavian's.  Asia 
Minor,  in  which  Antony  had  left  no  troops,  made 
haste  to  follow  suit,  and  the  small  kings  of  the 
Levant  were  eager  not  to  be  left  behind.  Didius, 
Antony's  governor  in  Syria,  imitated  the  example 
of  Pinarius  in  Cyrenaica,  and  at  last  the  whole 
Empire  of  the  East  was  but  a  heap  of  ruins,  with 
Egypt  alone  left  standing  in  the  midst. 

This   succession    of    blows,    coming   with    be- 

266 


THE    "  DIE-TOGETHERS  " 

wildering  rapidity,  dashed  to  pieces  Antony's 
short  regrowth  of  sanity.  Plutarch's  account  of 
his  behaviour  is  extraordinary,  but  there  seems 
no  reason  for  rejecting  so  circumstantial  a  narra- 
tive, unless  we  come  to  it  with  some  view  of  his 
character  which  necessitates  the  rejection  of  the 
bulk  of  the  ancient  records  of  his  life  as  fables. 
It  seems  that  in  his  Greek  reading  Antony  had 
been  struck  with  the  story  of  Timon  the  misan- 
thropist of  Athens,  the  worthy  who  justified  his 
unique  friendship  with  Alkibiades  on  the  ground 
that  "  he  liked  the  young  man  because  he  knew 
that  he  would  be  the  cause  of  much  evil  to  the 
Athenians,"  and  left  as  his  own  epitaph  the  lines  : 

Here  from  the  load  of  life  released  I  lie  ; 
Ask  not  my  name,  but  take  my  curse  and  die  ! 

Antony  now,  leaving  the  city  and  the  company  of 
his  friends,  had  a  mole  built  out  into  the  waters 
of  the  Great  Harbour  and  a  dwelling  erected  on 
it,  in  which  he  lived  the  life  of  a  recluse.  "  He 
expressed  himself  content  with  the  existence  of 
Timon,  whose  fortunes  he  considered  his  own  to 
resemble  ;  for  he  too  had  been  wronged  by  his 
friends  and  treated  with  ingratitude,  and  there- 
fore distrusted  and  hated  all  men."  From  the 
lips  of  the  commander  who  had  deserted  his  fleet 
and  army  at  Actium  the  talk  about  ingratitude 
fell  oddly.  But  Antony's  sense  of  humour  was 
not  subtle,  even  in  the  days  when  he  was  in  full 
possession  of  his  faculties. 

267 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

The  length  of  time  for  which  Antony  kept  up 
his  pitiful  comedy  in  his  "  Timonium "  is  not 
specified  by  Plutarch,  who  makes  him,  however, 
bring  his  solitary  life  to  an  end  by  letting 
Cleopatra  take  him  to  the  Palace  for  festivities  in 
connection  with  the  registration  of  Caesarion's 
coming  of  age  and  the  assumption  of  the  legal 
dress  of  Roman  manhood  by  Antyllus,  who  had 
remained  with  his  father  since  meeting  him  at 
Athens  in  32.  Caesarion  having  been  bom  in 
June  47,  it  is  difficult  to  see  what  occasion  was 
chosen  for  proclaiming  his  majority  ;  but  Dion, 
as  well  as  Plutarch,  makes  such  a  proclamation 
take  place,  stating  that  Antony  intended  it  to 
encourage  the  Egyptians,  "  seeing  that  they  now 
had  a  man  as  king."  The  double  celebration 
must  have  been  arranged  for  some  date  in  the 
winter  of  31-30  and  marked  the  renewal  of  the 
revels  in  Alexandria  ten  years,  and  again  three 
years,  before.  Tasting  once  more  the  pleasures 
of  the  joyous  life,  Antony  abandoned  misanthropy 
and  surrendered  himself  to  extravagance  of  the 
other  extreme.  The  Inimitable  Life  was  revived, 
but  with  a  new  note  in  its  gaiety.  "  Let  us  eat 
and  drink,  for  to-morrow  we  die  "  was  the  club's 
motto  more  emphatically  than  ever,  and  to  mark 
their  spirits  the  members  no  longer  called  them- 
selves the  Amimetobioi  but  the  Synapothanou- 
menoi,     the     "  Die-togethers."*     All     the     old 

*  M.  BoucM-Leclercq  points  out  that  the  name  is  taken  from 
the  play  which  Plautus  translated  in  his  "  Commorientes." 

268 


THE    "  DIE-TOGETHERS  " 

exquisite  luxury  and  shameless  prodigality  were 
there,  but  grown  more  reckless  from  the  knowledge 
that  the  end  was  at  hand. 

For,  if  we  may  trust  Plutarch,  no  hope  of 
escape  was  entertained  at  Alexandria.  Not  only 
did  the  friends  of  Antony  "  enrol  themselves  as 
intending  to  die  together,"  but  also 

"  Cleopatra  collected  all  kinds  of  deadly 
poisons  and  experimented  concerning  their  degrees 
of  painlessness  by  administering  them  to  pris- 
oners lying  under  sentence  of  death.  When 
she  found  that  the  quick-acting  poisons  brought 
about  a  speedy  but  painful  death,  while  the  less 
painful  were  not  rapid  in  action,  she  made  trial  of 
animals,  which  were  daily  set  on  one  another  in 
her  presence.  And  she  found  that  the  bite  of  the 
asp  alone  brought  on  drowsy  numbness,  with  no 
spasms  or  groans,  but  with  a  gentle  perspiration 
over  the  face  and  a  dulling  of  the  senses,  which 
quietly  ceased  to  act  and  resisted  all  attempts  to 
stimulate  them,  as  if  the  victim  were  in  deep 
slumber." 

This  story  of  Cleopatra  experimenting  with 
poisons  and  her  discovery  of  the  "  asp  "*  has 
become  very  famous.  Those  who  reject  the 
account  of  her  death  by  the  bite  of  this  reptile 
would  probably  refuse  belief  also  to  the  experi- 
ments. But,  as  we  shall  see,  the  reasons  for 
denjdng  the  story  of  Cleopatra's  suicide  which  all 

•  See  p.  300  n. 
269 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

ancient  writers  accepted  are  slight ;  and  if  she 
was  acquainted  with  the  quahties  of  the  venom 
of  this  particular  reptile,  whichever  it  was,  she 
must  have  observed  them  in  action  beforehand. 

Whatever  be  the  amount  of  exaggeration  in  the 
legend  of  Cleopatra's  experiments  with  poisons, 
there  does  not  seem  any  ground  for  doubting  that 
she  felt  the  necessity  of  preparing  for  the  worst. 
If  she  had  ever  hoped  that  Octavian  would  lack 
strength  or  courage  to  come  east  to  attack  herself 
and  Antony,  the  course  of  events  since  the  battle 
of  Actium  had  undeceived  her.  Octavian  had  not 
indeed  followed  his  great-uncle's  example  and 
made  straight  for  Alexandria  after  his  victory  in 
Greece.  He  had  a  very  good  reason  for  not  doing 
so,  apart  from  the  lesson  which  Julius  Caesar's 
Alexandrian  experience  had  taught ;  for  he  was 
still  as  hampered  by  the  want  of  funds  as  he  had 
been  throughout  his  struggle  against  Antony. 
Cleopatra  had  taken  the  precaution  of  carrying 
her  treasure-chests  away  with  her  when  she  fled. 
Antony  had  stripped  Greece  and  Asia  Minor  of 
all  the  money  which  he  could  wring  out  of  them. 
And  Octavian  had,  in  addition  to  his  own  troops, 
the  whole  army  of  Canidius  looking  for  pay  at 
his  hands.  He  could  therefore  neither  forgo 
(even  if  he  had  wished)  the  conquest  of  Egypt 
nor  yet  embark  upon  the  task  at  once.  Forced  to 
temporise  once  more,  he  sent  back  to  Italy  such 
of  his  own  veterans  as  had  completed  their  term 

270 


THE    "  DIE-TOGETHERS  " 

of  service,  putting  them  under  the  charge  of 
Agrippa  and  Maecenas  and  giving  them  promises 
instead  of  money.  Before  the  end  of  the  year, 
after  arranging  the  affairs  of  Greece  to  his  satisfac- 
tion and  receiving  from  the  Athenians  and  others 
the  statues  and  honours  which  only  a  few  months 
before  they  had  been  bestowing  so  enthusiastically 
upon  Antony  and  Cleopatra,  he  crossed  over  to 
Asia  Minor. 

Every  change  of  fortune  in  Rome's  civil  wars 
was  followed  by  d}Tiastic  rearrangements  in  Asia 
Minor  and  Syria,  and  Octavian's  victory  at 
Actium  was  no  exception  to  the  rule.  All  such 
of  Antony's  nominees  as  had  not  deserted  him 
betimes  were  swept  away  and  replaced  by  new 
princes,  who  doubtless  did  not  fail  to  make  in 
return  a  present  to  their  patron.  But  money  did 
not  come  to  Octavian  by  any  means  as  quickly  as 
he  desired.  In  the  New  Year  he  was  obliged  to 
return  for  a  month  to  Italy,  where  the  outcry  of 
the  veterans  at  the  tardiness  of  their  reward  for 
the  campaign  of  Actium  had  become  very 
threatening.  Borrowing  from  the  wealthiest 
of  his  personal  friends,  Octavian  succeeded  in 
diminishing  for  a  time  the  discontent  of  the 
veterans  and  also  of  the  principal  sufferers  from 
his  recent  impositions  at  Rome,  the  freedmen. 
Then  he  hastened  back  east  and  began  to  prepare 
in  Syria  for  the  invasion  of  Egypt.  On  his  way 
to  Syria  he  was  met  at  Rhodes  by  Herod,  who  for 

271 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

some  reason  had  not  yet  come  to  make  his  sub- 
mission to  the  conqueror  of  Actium.  According 
to  Josephus,  he  had  paid  a  visit  to  Alexandria  and 
had  made  a  last  attempt  to  persuade  Antony  to 
put  Cleopatra  to  death  and  declare  the  incorpora- 
tion of  Egypt  into  the  Roman  Empire.  Whether 
this  was  so  or  not,  when  Herod  made  his  ap- 
pearance at  Rhodes,  his  well-known  antipathy 
to  Cleopatra,  coupled  with  his  wealth,  was  a  strong 
argument  in  favour  of  a  good  reception  of  his 
advances.  Octavian  pardoned  him  and,  when 
revising  the  list  of  Syrian  rulers,  left  him  on  the 
throne  of  Judaea. 

Barely  had  Octavian  arrived  in  Syria  when  he 
found  an  embassy  from  Alexandria  begging  for  an 
audience.  The  leading  envoy  was  the  tutor  of 
the  children  of  Antony  and  Cleopatra,  a  Greek 
named  Euphronios,  the  most  trustworthy  man 
whom  they  could  now  discover  when  desertion 
had  robbed  Antony  of  so  many  of  his  Roman 
friends.  Euphronios  and  his  companions  were 
charged  with  commissions  alike  from  Antony  and 
from  Cleopatra.  Antony  merely  asked  that  he 
might  be  allowed  to  retire  into  private  life  at 
Athens,  if  Egypt  were  to  be  forbidden  to  him. 
Cleopatra  begged  that  the  kingdom  of  Egypt 
might  be  given  to  her  children,  sending  to 
Octavian  the  crown,  sceptre,  and  chariot  of  the 
Pharaohs  in  order  that  he  might  bestow  them 
again.     According    to    Dion    Cassius,    Cleopatra 

272 


THE    "  DIE-TOGETHERS  " 

had  also  sent  agents  to  corrupt  Octavian's  staff 
and  attempt  his  assassination.  Such  a  story  was 
inevitable  in  the  campaign  of  evil  charges  against 
the  Egyptian  queen.  It  is  more  astonishing  to 
read  Plutarch's  version  of  Octavian's  reply  to 
Cleopatra's  request  on  behalf  of  her  children — 
namely,  that  "  she  might  obtain  anything  within 
reason  if  she  would  either  kill  Antony  or  drive 
him  away."*  Plutarch  is  far  less  an  adherent  of 
the  Caesarian  tradition  than  Dion.  Yet  it  is 
strange  that  he  should  have  ventured  to  suggest 
such  underhand  dealings  on  the  part  of  the 
founder  of  the  line  of  Emperors  at  Rome — unless 
he  was  only  repeating  what  was  already  known 
through  earlier  historians,  such  as  Dellius. 
Octavian's  early  record  hardly  encourages  us  to 
deny  the  possibility  of  his  suggestion  to  Cleopatra 
that  she  should  not  merely  betray  but  even  kill 
Antony  ;  but  we  should  scarcely  have  expected 
the  fact  of  the  suggestion  to  be  stated  so  baldly 
as  it  is  by  Plutarch. 

The  Egyptian  Embassy  returned  to  Alexandria 
without  accomplishing  much.  If  Octavian  sent 
secretly  such  a  message  to  Cleopatra  as  is  given 
above,  entrusting  it  to  an  agent  of  his  own,  who. 
accompanied  the  ambassadors  to  Alexandria,  to 
Antony  he  declined  to  make  any  answer  at  all. 

*  Which  differs  but  little  from  Dion's  account  (LI.  6) 
that  Octavian  promised  Cleopatra,  if  she  should  kill  Antony 
*'  both  personal  immunity  and  a  maintenance  of  her  authority 
undiminished." 

273 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

Antony  attempted  to  soften  his  heart  by  sending 
to  him  as  a  captive  the  senator  TuniUius,  the  last 
survivor  among  the  murderers  of  Julius  Caesar, 
Octavian  did  what  was  expected  of  him,  in  that 
he  put  Turullius  to  death  ;  but  he  took  no  other 
notice  of  the  sender  of  this  victim  to  the  shade 
of  Julius.  Next  Antony  despatched  Euphronios 
again,  accompanied  by  Antyllus  and  furnished 
with  a  large  sum  of  money.  Octavian  accepted 
the  money,  but  was  deaf  to  the  prayers  of 
Antyllus  on  his  father's  behalf.  He  made  it 
evident  that  no  terms  could  be  hoped  for  by  his 
former  colleague  except  unconditional  surrender 
or  death. 

With  Cleopatra  the  case  was  different.  What- 
ever may  have  been  the  real  intentions  of 
Octavian  toward  her  at  this  moment,  he  was 
anxious  to  encourage  her  to  hope  for  leniency  at 
his  hands.  Can  he  have  heard  of  her  researches 
into  the  action  of  various  poisons  and  have  feared 
lest  a  sudden  desperate  resolve  on  her  part  might 
rob  him  of  his  chance  of  capturing  her  and  her 
treasures  ?  This  fear  is  attributed  to  him  after 
he  had  entered  Egypt.  But  he  had  already  begun 
to  dangle  before  her  eyes  temptations  to  live, 
while  he  was  still  in  Syria.  The  man  whom  he 
had  sent  back  with  the  first  Egyptian  embassy 
was  his  freedman  Thyrsus,  an  Alexandrian  by 
birth.  Thyrsus  had  been  brought  to  Rome  as 
a  boy-slave  by  Gabinius,  and  after  passing  into 

274 


THE   "  DIE-TOGETHERS  " 

the  hands  of  Octavian  had  been  set  free  and 
treated  by  him  with  great  favour,  which  continued 
until,  under  the  Empire,  he  offended  his  patron  by 
his  outspokenness  and  fell  into  disgrace.  Plu- 
tarch describes  him  "  a  man  not  lacking  in 
judgment  and,  coming  as  he  did  from  a  young 
general,  not  likely  to  fail  in  persuasive  address  to 
a  haughty  woman  who  prided  herself  wonderfully 
upon  her  beauty."  With  regard  to  this  "  wonder- 
ful pride  in  her  beauty,"  it  must  be  remembered 
that  this  forms  part  of  Plutarch's  interpretation 
of  Cleopatra's  character.  It  is  a  very  natural 
deduction  from  her  history,  if  direct  evidence  is 
absent. 

Dion  Cassius,  who  if  less  romantic  than  Plutarch 
is  more  fond  of  scandal,  represents  Thyrsus  as 
being  entrusted  by  Octavian  with  warmer 
messages  to  Cleopatra  than  those  of  mere  en- 
couragement. This  hardly  seems  probable.* 
But  it  is  not  surprising  that  Antony  was  suspicious 
about  the  long  interviews  between  his  consort 
and  the  envoy  of  Octavian.  He  seized  Thyrsus 
therefore,  had  him  whipped,  and  sent  him  back 
to  Syria,  writing  to  Octavian  that  the  man's 
airs  had  offended  him,  and  that  if  he  took  the 
matter  ill  he  might  in  turn  whip  Hipparchus 
(Antony's  freedman),  who  was  in  his  hands.  It 
is  not  recorded  whether  Octavian  took  advantage 

•  Professor  Ferrero,  however,  seems  to  accept  it  as  true 
(IV.  chap.  6). 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

of  this  generous  offer.     The  lot  of  freedmen  was 
none  too  happy  in  the  Roman  world. 

Plutarch  says  that,  "  after  the  incident  of  the 
punishment  of  Thjn-sus,  Cleopatra,  with  a  view  to 
allaying  Antony's  suspicions,  paid  more  court 
than  usual  to  him,  keeping  her  own  birthday  in 
a  mean  manner,  suitable  to  her  condition,  while 
celebrating  that  of  Antony  with  such  magnificence 
and  expense  that  many  of  those  who  came  to  the 
feast  poor  went  away  rich."  We  do  not  know  the 
date  of  either  of  these  birthdays,  but  if  Plutarch's 
tale  is  true  both  of  them  must  have  fallen  within 
the  five  months  beginning  with  March  and  ending 
with  July. 

The  strange  negotiations  which  had  been  in 
progress  between  Alexandria  and  Syria  came  to 
an  end  in  the  summer  of  30  with  nothing  accom- 
plished. No  doubt  Octavian  had  desired  to 
accomplish  nothing,  except  to  gain  time  until 
he  should  be  ready  to  invade  Egypt.  Since  the 
battle  of  Actium  he  had  behind  him  the  whole 
force  of  public  opinion  in  the  Empire,  and  had  no 
reason  for  hesitating  to  press  Antony,  to  the 
uttermost.  All  the  popularity  of  the  once  great 
Triumvir  had  vanished,  and  the  long-prosecuted 
campaign  of  abuse  at  Rome  had  gained  its  end 
after  the  disgraceful  scene  of  September  2nd, 
B.C.  31.  So  far  from  Octavian  needing  to  delay 
before  marching  on  Alexandria,  the  speedier 
his  advance  the  better.     At  his  goal  there  awaited 

276 


THE    "  DIE-TOGETHERS  " 

him  not  only  certain  victory,  but  also  the  wealth 
of  Egypt,  wherewith  to  redeem  his  promises 
to  his  vast  army  of  veterans  and  to  pay  back 
to  his  friends  the  moneys  which  he  had  been 
compelled  to  borrow  from  them  to  meet  the  most 
urgent  calls  on  his  purse  after  Actium.  Even  so 
procrastinating  a  disposition  as  Octavian's  could 
not  waver  now.  He  prepared  to  advance  on 
Alexandria  himself  by  way  of  Pelusium,  while 
orders  were  sent  to  Cornelius  Gallus  in  Roman 
Africa  to  approach  the  capital  from  the  other 
"  horn  "  of  Egypt. 

After  the  failure  of  the  negotiations,  Antony 
and  Qeopatra  must  have  felt  that  the  death 
whose  approach  they  had  already  sighted  in  the 
winter  of  31-30  was  close  at  hand.  With  regard 
to  Cleopatra's  alleged  hope  of  avoiding  it  by 
betraying  Antony,  in  which  Dion  believes, 
being  followed  by  later  historians  like  Zonaras 
of  the  Twelfth  Century  a.d.,  there  is  only  this 
to  be  said.  There  is  nothing  to  prove  the 
treachery,  and  the  accusation  is  a  very  obvious 
one  to  make  against  an  enemy  of  Rome.  Doubt- 
less the  contemporary  Roman  historians,  now 
lost,  first  gave  currency  to  the  story.  Whether 
we  accept  it  or  not  must  depend  entirely  upon  our 
estimate  of  Cleopatra's  character.  Nothing  else 
will  help  us  to  form  an  opinion  upon  the  point  ; 
certainly  not  Antony's  feeble  cries  that  he  was 
betrayed,  of  which  we  shall  hear  later.     But  for 

277 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

the  words  of  Dion  and  later  writers  we  should 
only  see  a  picture  of  Cleopatra  loyally  carrying 
out  the  conditions  of  her  membership  of  the 
"  Die-togethers,"  while  preparing  at  the  same 
time  with  Antony  to  make  a  last  desperate 
struggle  for  freedom  and  life  with  the  resources 
in  treasure  and  troops  which  still  remained  to 
Egypt. 

The  idea  of  flight  to  some  remoter  region  had 
perhaps  not  been  altogether  abandoned  yet,  even 
if  Cleopatra  had  been  persuaded  to  give  up  her 
scheme  of  sailing  down  the  Red  Sea  to  found  a 
new  kingdom.  A  retirement  from  the  Nile 
Delta  into  Upper  Egypt  was  perhaps  dismissed 
as  not  putting  the  fugitives  beyond  the  reach 
of  the  Roman  armies.*  Antony  is  credited 
with  an  idea  of  escaping  to  Spain  and  carrying 
on  a  war  against  Octavian  there,  as  Cnaeus 
Pompeius  had  attempted  to  do  against  Julius 
Caesar.  But,  if  he  seriously  entertained  this 
idea,  he  left  it  until  it  was  too  late  to  carry  it 
out.  With  hostile  armies  on  both  frontiers  of 
Egypt  and  the  Mediterranean  commanded  by 
the  Roman  fleet,  there  was  no  hope  of  reaching 

*  There  is  a  story  that  Cleopatra,  at  the  moment  of  her 
death,  reproached  herself  for  having  forgotten  that  she  might 
have  sought  the  recesses  of  Egypt,  wherein  she  could  easily 
have  prepared  for  a  renewal  of  the  war  (see  the  scholiast  on 
Vergil,  "  Aeneid,"  VIII.  712).  Commenting  on  this,  M. 
Bouch6-Leclercq  remarks  that,  on  the  contrary,  Cleopatra 
seems  to  have  forgotten  nothing,  for  she  knew  she  would  not 
be  safe  in  the  Thebaid. 

278 


THE    "  DIE-TOGETHERS  " 

Spain  with  a  force  large  enough  to  begin  warfare 
there. 

Since  then  it  was  necessary  to  die,  it  only  re- 
mained to  die  in  a  way  which  should  benefit  the 
enemy  least.  Cleopatra  erected  for  herself  a 
tomb  near  the  Temple  of  Isis  Lochias,  in  the 
north-east  corner  of  Alexandria  ;  and  here  she 
collected  together,  says  Plutarch,  "  the  most 
precious  of  the  royal  treasures,  gold,  silver, 
emeralds,  pearls,  ebony,  ivory,  and  cinnamon, 
and  also  a  great  quantity  of  firewood  and  tow," 
evidently  intending,  like  the  legendary  Sardan- 
apalus  (with  whose  story  she  was  doubtless 
familiar),  to  put  out  of  her  conqueror's  reach  as 
much  as  she  could  in  addition  to  her  own  person. 
Antony,  on  his  part,  hastened  along  the  coast 
to  the  western  boundary  of  Egypt,  and  made 
an  attempt  to  bring  back  to  their  former  allegiance 
the  garrison  of  Paraetonium,  which  was  composed 
of  the  troops  of  Pinarius.  When,  however,  he 
came  near  the  walls  of  the  fortress,  his  voice 
was  drowned  by  the  sound  of  trumpets  blown 
from  within,  and  a  sudden  sortie  of  the  defenders 
compelled  him  to  run  for  his  life  to  his  ships  and, 
after  losing  some  of  these  by  fire,  to  return  to 
Alexandria. 

Meanwhile,  the  other  frontier  had  been  crossed 
by  the  army  led  by  Octavian.  Once  again  in  its 
history  Pelusium  surrendered  tamely  to  the 
invaders.     Antony,    never    free    from    suspicion 

279 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

now,  believed  that  the  commander  Seleukos 
had  betrayed  the  fortress  with  Cleopatra's 
connivance.  To  prove  her  good  faith,  in  a  manner 
familiar  to  the  ancients,  she  handed  over  to  him 
the  traitor's  wife  and  children  that  he  might 
put  them  to  death.  Whether  Antony  did  so, 
we  do  not  hear. 

With  Pelusium  lost,  and  only  a  small  aniiy 
under  his  command,  Antony  made  no  attempt  to 
dispute  Octavian's  advance,  but  awaited  him  at 
Alexandria.  While  on  his  way,  Octavian,  learn- 
ing of  Cleopatra's  preparations  for  a  holocaust 
of  her  treasures,  continued  to  forward  to  her 
messages  encouraging  her  to  look  for  kind  treat- 
ment at  his  hands.  The  thought  of  the  capture 
of  Alexandria  without  the  royal  treasures,  in- 
creased by  the  exactions  and  confiscations  made 
by  Cleopatra  after  her  return  from  Actium,  was 
by  no  means  to  Octavian's  taste.  The  queen's 
millions  were  more  necessary  to  him,  indeed, 
than  the  city  itself. 

By  the  end  of  July,  Octavian  was  on  the 
outskirts  of  Alexandria,  having  marched  so  far 
without  being  compelled  to  strike  a  blow.  Now 
came  the  last  flicker  of  Antony's  spirit  before  the 
darkness.  For  a  moment  he  became  once  more 
the  brilliant  cavalry-leader  of  his  young  manhood. 
He  sallied  out  from  the  city  gates,  and,  attacking 
Octavian's  horsemen,  not  only  defeated  them, 
but  chased  them  back  to  their  camp.  Flushed 
280 


THE    "  DIE-TOGETHERS  " 

with  his  success,  he  hastened  back  to  the  palace, 
still  in  his  armour,  to  embrace  Cleopatra.  With 
him  he  brought  one  of  his  men,  who  had  especially 
distinguished  himself  in  the  fight.  Cleopatra 
presented  a  reward  to  this  soldier  in  the  shape 
of  a  golden  breastplate  and  helmet.  "  The 
man  took  them,"  says  Plutarch,  seizing  with 
delight  on  a  picturesque  incident,  "  and  in  the 
night  deserted  to  Caesar." 

Antony  also  attempted  to  use  another  weapon 
against  his  enemy  by  sending  into  his  camp  offers 
of  £60  apiece  to  all  deserters.  But  it  was  too 
late  for  bribes  to  succeed,  since  Octavian  was 
able  to  point  out  to  his  men  that  all  the  wealth 
of  Alexandria  was  already  theirs,  the  place  being 
doomed.  To  a  challenge  to  single  combat — a 
renewal  of  the  challenge  before  the  Actium  cam- 
paign— he  replied  with  the  words,  "  Antony 
had  many  ways  of  dying." 

The  truth  of  this  remark,  with  its  inference 
that  there  was  nothing  else  to  expect  save  death, 
was  obvious  enough  to  the  man  for  whose  hearing 
it  was  intended  ;  and  Antony's  mind  had  not 
decayed  so  far  that  he  had  forgotten  that  for  a 
soldier  the  best  death  is  in  battle.  So,  although 
he  knew  the  inadequacy  of  his  forces,  and  was 
ready  to  see  treachery  everywhere,  particularly 
in  the  conduct  of  her  for  whom  he  had  ruined 
himself,  he  prepared  to  give  battle  both  by  land 
and  by  sea.  Plutarch  describes  him  for  us  on 
281 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

the  night  before  his  death,  July  31st,  bidding 
the  slaves  at  supper  pour  out  the  wine  and  feast 
him  cheerfully,  for  they  knew  not  whether  they 
would  be  doing  this  for  him  on  the  morrow  or 
be  serving  other  masters,  while  he  lay  a  corpse, 
a  thing  of  no  account.  Noticing  that  his  words 
affected  his  friends  to  tears,  -  he  endeavoured 
to  cheer  them  with  the  thought  that  the  alterna- 
tives next  day  were  either  a  glorious  death  or 
victory.  Plutarch,  again  with  a  literary  artist's 
eye  for  the  romantic,  goes  on  to  tell  of  a  strange 
happening  at  Alexandria  that  night,  after  the  last 
banquet  over  which  Antony  was  ever  to  preside. 

"  About  the  middle  of  the  night,  it  is  said, 
while  the  city  was  silent  and  depressed  with  fear 
and  expectation  of  what  was  to  come,  of  a  sudden 
sounds  of  music  were  heard  from  all  sorts  of 
instruments,  with  shouts  of  a  crowd  crying  Euoi  ! 
and  leaping  like  satyrs,  as  if  a  company  of  revellers 
were  leaving  the  city  tumultuously  ;  and  the 
course  of  the  procession  seemed  to  be  through 
the  midst  of  Alexandria  to  the  gate  leading  in 
the  direction  of  the  enemy,  at  which  point  the 
noise  was  loudest  as  it  surged  out.  Those  that 
reflected  upon  this  portent  were  of  the  opinion 
that  the  god  to  whom  Antony  had  always  most 
likened  himself  and  with  whom  he  claimed 
kinship  was  deserting  him."* 

*  Plutarch,  "  Antony,"  75.     Euoi  or  evoe,  of  course,  is  the 
cry  of  the  Bacchic  orgiasts. 

282 


THE    "  DIE-TOGETHERS  " 

This  truly  mysterious  occurrence  is  mentioned 
by  no  one  else,  and  we  are  ignorant  whence 
Plutarch  derived  his  story.  From  a  pious  point 
of  view,  it  was  certainly  appropriate  that  the 
god  should  give  a  sign  that  he  was  abandoning 
the  cause  of  Antony,  the  New  Dionysos. 

Antony,  however,  was  busy  from  daybreak  on 
August  ist  posting  his  troops  on  "  the  hills  in 
front  of  the  city,"  that  is  to  say,  on  rising  ground 
to  the  east  of  Alexandria.  The  fleet  meanwhile 
advanced  from  the  harbour  toward  Octavian's 
ships.  The  number  and  composition  of  this 
fleet  are  unknown.  From  its  conduct  it  is  evident 
that  the  seamen  had  been  bought  by  Octavian  ; 
for,  as  soon  as  it  came  in  touch  with  the  Romans, 
the  rowers  paused  to  salute  them  with  their  oars, 
and  then  took  their  vessels  over  to  the  enemy 
before  Antony's  eyes,  the  two  fleets  uniting  in 
one  and  advancing  against  Alexandria.  While 
this  was  happening,  the  battle  had  commenced 
on  land  ;  but  it  was  of  short  duration.  Antony's 
cavalry  deserted  early,  and  his  infantry,  the  few 
remains  of  his  many  legions,  were  defeated. 
Neither  the  glorious  death  nor  the  victory  of 
which  he  had  spoken  to  his  friends  the  night  before 
had  fallen  to  his  lot.  A  third  alternative,  which 
he  had  not  contemplated,  was  waiting  him — 
to  breathe  his  last,  a  defeated  man,  in  the  arms 
of  Cleopatra,  "  dying  where  he  had  Uvcd."* 

•  Shakespeare,  "  Antony  and  Cleopatra,"  IV.  13. 
283 


CHAPTER  XVI 

THE   ENDING   OF   A   TRAGEDY 

It  was  with  the  name  of  Cleopatra  upon  his  lips 
that  Antony  re-entered  Alexandria  on  the  day 
of  his  death.  With  her  name,  however,  was 
coupled  not  a  blessing,  but  a  curse.  Once  more 
he  spoke  of  treachery  ;  he  had  been  betrayed  by 
her  to  those  against  whom  he  was  fighting  for  her 
sake.  Whether  Cleopatra  saw  him  as  he  returned 
to  the  Palace,  or  whether  she  trusted  only  to 
reports  as  to  his  state  of  mind,  she  was  so  alarmed 
that,  accompanied  only  by  her  women  Iras  and 
Charmion,  she  fled  to  the  tomb  which  she  had 
built  near  the  Temple  of  Isis  Lochias,  and  sent 
messengers  to  tell  Antony  that  she  was  dead. 
This  tomb  was  a  large  two-storied  building,  in 
which,  it  will  be  remembered,  she  had  already 
gathered  her  treasures  so  as  to  be  able  to  destroy 
them  all  by  fire  if  necessary.  It  had  folding 
doors,  secured  by  bolts  and  bars,  which  were 
now  used  to  prevent  any  one  entering.  But 
Antony  did  not  attempt  to  verify  the  news  of 
Cleopatra's  death.  He  accepted  the  story  of  her 
suicide,  and  prepared  to  follow  her  example. 
Plutarch  represents  him  as  murmuring  to  him- 
self :     "  Why  still  delay,  Antony,  since  Fate  has 

284 


THE   ENDING    OF    A   TRAGEDY 

taken  away  the  one  excuse  for  loving  life  ?  "  He 
then  retired  to  his  bedchamber  with  a  faithful 
slave  named  Eros,  whom  he  had  already  warned 
to  be  ready  to  perform  the  duty  which  was  now 
required  of  him.  As  he  took  off  the  armour  in 
which  he  had  fought  that  morning,  he  apostro- 
phised thus  the  woman  whom  he  had  so  recently 
accused  of  betraying  him :  "  Cleopatra,  it  is 
not  at  the  loss  of  you  I  am  grieved,  for  soon  I 
shall  come  to  the  same  place  with  you,  but  that 
I,  being  such  a  general,  am  proved  inferior  in 
courage  to  a  woman." 

With  this  anticipation  of  his  descendant  Nero's 
"  Qualis  artifex  pereo ! "  Antony  turned  to 
Eros,  and  bade  him  do  his  duty.  Eros  drew  his 
sword,  but,  instead  of  striking  at  his  master, 
ran  himself  through  and  died.  Looking  down  at 
the  slave's  body  at  his  feet,  Antony  cried : 
"  Well  done,  Eros !  What  you  cannot  do  for 
me  yourself  you  teach  me  how  to  do."  With 
this  he  apparently  tried  to  rip  himself  up,  in  the 
style  of  a  Japanese  committing  seppuku  or  hara- 
kiri,  and  flung  himself,  wounded  and  senseless, 
on  the  bed.  He  had  not,  however,  done  his  work 
so  well  as  Eros,  and,  though  his  hurt  was  mortal, 
it  was  not  immediately  fatal.  The  flow  of  blood 
ceased,  and  he  regained  consciousness.  Seeing 
people  around  him — they  had  perhaps  come 
into  the  room  attracted  by  the  noise — he  called 
to   them   to   put   an   end   to   him.     Instead    of 

285 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

complying,    they    fled    in    terror,    and  left  him 
writhing  in  agony. 

At  this  point  another  messenger  came  from 
Cleopatra — Diomedes,  her  secretary — to  inform 
him  that  she  was  not  dead,  and  to  bring  him  to 
her.  Antony  raised  himself  up,  as  if  now  he 
could  still  go  on  living,  and  called  his  slaves 
to  carry  him  to  where  Cleopatra  awaited  him. 
On  the  way  to  the  tomb  he  hastened  their  steps 
with  prayers  and  threats,  and  when  they  arrived 
before  the  doors  he  was  still  breathing  and 
conscious.  The  doors  were  not  opened  for  him 
for  fear,  perhaps,  of  others  beside  him  effecting 
an  entry  at  the  same  time  and  seizing  the  trea- 
sures ;  but  Cleopatra  herself  looked  out  of  a 
window  in  the  upper  story  and  let  down  ropes, 
which  Antony's  slaves  attached  to  the  litter  on 
which  they  had  brought  their  master.  Then,  with 
the  help  of  Iras  and  Charmion,  she  drew  the  litter 
up  to  the  window.  "  The  eye-witnesses,"  re- 
marks Plutarch,  "  say  that  never  was  there  a 
more  piteous  sight ;  for  Antony  was  hauled  up, 
stained  with  blood  and  wrestling  against  death, 
stretching  out  his  hands  toward  Cleopatra  as 
he  hung  in  the  air.  It  was  no  easy  task  for 
women  ;  and  Cleopatra,  with  straining  arms  and 
contracted  features,  laboured  at  the  ropes, 
while  those  below  encouraged  her  and  shared 
in  her  agony.  When  she  had  taken  him  in  and 
laid    him    down,    she    rent    her    garments    over 

286 


THE   ENDING    OF   A   TRAGEDY 

him  and  beat  her  breasts,  smearing  her  face 
with  his  blood,  calling  him  lord  and  husband 
and  general,  and  almost  forgetting  her  own 
sorrows  in  lamentation  for  his." 

Plutarch  somewhat  mars  the  effect  of  his 
admirable  narrative  by  representing  Antony  as 
finding  time  before  he  breathed  his  last  breath 
to  give  Cleopatra  advice  as  to  how  she  might 
best  look  after  her  own  honour,*  and  to  bid 
her,  instead  of  lamenting  his  late  misfortunes, 
think  him  happy  for  what  he  had  achieved,  and 
for  his  not  ignoble  end.  Shakespeare,  however, 
succeeded  in  embodying  all  Plutarch's  rhetoric 
in  the  death-scene  in  his  fourth  Act,  down  to  the 
words : 

I  lived,  the  greatest  prince  o'  the  world. 
The  noblest ;   and  do  now  not  basely  die 
Nor  cowardly  put  off  ray  helmet  to 
My  countryman — a  Roman,  by  a  Roman 
Valiantly  vanquished. 

In  this  manner  died  Antony  at  the  age  of  fifty- 
three,  after  a  connection  with  the  Egyptian  queen 
lasting  over  twelve  years,  including  the  long  in- 
terval in  40-36  B.C.  during  which  he  did  not  see 
her  at  all.     It   is  perhaps  unnecessary  to   add 

*  As  M.  Bouch6-Leclercq  says,  if  Antony  had  time  to  reflect, 
his  most  poignant  anxiety  would  have  been  about  his  children 
rather  than  about  Cleopatra's  honour.  But  Plutarch  in 
this  instance  appears  to  have  consulted  his  sense  of  what  was 
fitting  in  rounding  off  his  description  of  Antony's  end,  since 
he  can  hardly  have  found  any  authentic  record  of  the  last 
words. 

287 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

anything  to  what  has  been  said  of  Antony  already, 
particularly  in  Chapter  VII,  except  to  call  atten- 
tion to  the  way  in  which  the  last  actions  of  his 
life  support  the  idea  of  his  mental  decay.  It  is 
impossible  to  recognise  the  once  great  Triumvir 
in  the  hesitating  bungler,  complaining  of  treason, 
unable  to  exercise  influence  over  his  troops,  unable 
to  find  the  glorious  death  in  battle  of  which  he 
could  talk  over  the  wine  the  night  before,  unable 
even  to  direct  his  sword  steadily  against  himself, 
and  only  saved  from  a  truly  sorry  ending  by  the 
pathos  which  his  reconciliation  with  Cleopatra 
lent  to  his  final  hour.  In  the  close  of  his  life 
there  remains  nothing  which  can  arouse  any  ad- 
miration for  Antony  except  the  continuance  of 
his  affection  for  Cleopatra.  But  for  this  very 
infatuation,  which  inspired  his  countrymen  with 
such  disgust,  the  Antony  of  August  ist — the 
Antony,  indeed,  of  the  years  31-30 — would  seem 
but  a  futile  and  contemptible  phantom  lingering 
on  in  history  after  the  disappearance  of  the  hero 
whose  name  be  bore. 

Cleopatra  was  not  long  left  alone  with  her  dead 
lover  in  the  tomb.  In  fact,  a  messenger  arrived 
from  Octavian  just  as  Antony  was  dying.  From 
this  we  may  gather  that  the  Romans  had  entered 
Alexandria  very  soon  after  their  easy  victory 
outside    the    walls.*     Octavian's    envoy    was   a 

*  M.  Bouche-Leclercq  finds  it  hard  to  believe  that  Antony's 
defeat  and  suicide  and  Octavian's  entrance  into  Alexandria 

288 


THE   ENDING    OF   A   TRAGEDY 

knight  of  the  name  of  Prociileius,  of  whom  we 
know  little  except  that  he  is  supposed  to  be  the 
Proculeius  mentioned  by  Horace  with  praise 
for  his  care  for  his  brothers.  He  had  instructions 
to  try  to  secure  Cleopatra  alive.  Octavian  had 
learnt  of  Antony's  suicide  through  one  of  the 
palace-guards,  who  had  come  to  him  bringing 
the  blood-stained  sword  with  which  the  deed 
had  been  done,  and  was  anxious  to  prevent 
Cleopatra  from  following  Antony's  example  after 
setting  the  tomb  on  fire.  At  first  sight  it  appears 
strange  that  Cleopatra  did  not  take  this  course. 
The  classical  writers,  including  Dion  and  perhaps 
even  Plutarch,  are  content  with  the  explanation 
that  she  hoped  to  be  able  to  seduce  Octavian  as 
she  had  seduced  his  great-uncle  and  Antony 
before  him.  It  is  hardly  necessary,  however, 
to  imagine  this,  and  we  have  not  the  same  motive 
as  the  ancients  for  making  out  Cleopatra  to 
have  been  an  entirely  abandoned  woman.  A  key 
to  her  conduct  seems  to  be  fiurnished  by  her 
conversation  with  Proculeius  as  given  by  Plutarch. 
When  the  Roman  knight  arrived  she  refused  to 
open  the  doors  of  the  tomb  to  him,  but  talked  to 
him  from  inside  the  building  while  he  stood  out- 
side. She  asked  for  a  guarantee  that  her  kingdom 
should  be  given  to  her  children  ;  and  Proculeius, 
after    encouraging  her  and  telling  her  to  trust 

all  occurred  on  the  same  day,  August  ist,  B.C.  30.  But  this 
is  what  appears  from  a  comparisoa  of  the  accounts  of  the 
various  ancient  historians. 

289  10 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

Octavian  in  all  things,  was  obliged  to  return 
from  his  mission  empty-handed. 

It  was  anxiety  for  her  children  that  prevented 
Cleopatra  from  committing  suicide.  A  self- 
inflicted  death  would  save  her  from  the  humilia- 
tion of  being  carried  a  prisoner  to  Rome,  but 
would  leave  Caesarion  and  her  three  children 
by  Antony  upon  whom  the  conqueror  might 
wreak  his  vengeance.  Caesarion  had  already 
been  sent  with  his  tutor  Rhodon  to  "  India  by 
way  of  Ethiopia,"  it  would  appear  from  Plutarch. 
But,  as  indeed  turned  out,  he  was  not  yet  out 
of  harm's  way  ;  while  Alexander,  Selene,  and 
Ptolemy  were  still  in  Alexandria,  as  far  as  we 
know.  From  the  beginning  of  her  negotiations 
with  Octavian,  Cleopatra  had  asked  but  one 
thing,  the  inheritance  of  Egypt  for  her  offspring. 
The  last  of  the  Lagidae,  whatever  her  faults  and 
crimes,  cannot  be  denied  the  possession  of  maternal 
instinct  and  of  pride  in  her  family.  She  wished 
to  know,  before  she  died,  that  her  children  would 
be  spared,  and  would  wear  the  crown  which  she 
had  received  from  her  father.* 

Dion,  it  must  be  noted,  makes  Cleopatra  send  a 
messenger  to  Octavian  before  Proculeius  came  to 
her.  There  is  nothing  to  show  whether  Plutarch's 
or  Dion's  version  is  correct ;    but  the  point  is 

*  WTio,  it  may  be  remembered,  has  himself  been  credited 
with  the  one  virtue  of  regard  for  his  children,  or  rather  for 
the  four  youngest  of  them. 

290 


THE   ENDING   OF   A   TRAGEDY 

not  of  much  importance,  for  even  if  Dion  is  right 
the  mission  of  Proculeius  would  only  be  Octavian's 
answer  to  Cleopatra's  inquiry  as  to  what  terms  he 
offered  her.  In  any  case,  when  Octavian  found 
that  Cleopatra  refused  to  admit  his  envoy  within 
the  tomb  he  sent  him  back  again  in  company  with 
Cornelius  Gallus,  giving  them  instructions  to 
force  their  way  in  somehow.  By  a  ruse  they 
succeeded  in  cheating  Cleopatra's  vigilance. 
Gallus  this  time  held  her  in  conversation  through 
the  closed  door,  while  his  companion  climbed 
to  the  window  in  the  upper  story  by  means  of  a 
ladder.  Then,  followed  by  two  slaves,  Proculeius 
came  downstairs  and  took  Cleopatra  in  the 
rear. 

Either  Charmion  or  Iras  saw  the  intruders  first, 
and  cried  out  :  "  Unhappy  Cleopatra,  you  are 
taken  alive  !  "  The  queen  turned  round  and, 
seeing  Proculeius,  seized  a  dagger  which  she  had 
about  her  and  tried  to  stab  herself.  The  Roman 
was  too  quick  for  her.  He  snatched  the  dagger 
from  her  hand,  telling  her  that  "  she  wTonged 
both  herself  and  Caesar  by  attempting  to  rob 
him  of  the  chance  of  showing  magnanimity 
and  to  fix  on  the  mildest  of  generals  the  stigma 
of  bad  faith  and  relentlessness."  The  door 
was  opened  for  Gallus,  and,  after  Cleopatra  had 
been  searched  for  poison,  Octavian  was  informed 
of  his  agents'  success.  He  sent  his  freedman, 
Epaphroditus,    with   orders   to   watch   carefully 

291 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

lest  she  should  attempt  suicide,  but  otherwise 
to  be  indulgent  to  her. 

Octavian  had  obtained  all  that  he  could  desire. 
Antony  was  dead,  Cleopatra  was  a  prisoner,  and 
her  treasures  and  the  whole  city  of  Alexandria 
were  his.  He  had  received  the  news  of  Antony's 
suicide  at  first  with  studied  correctness  of  conduct, 
retiring  within  his  tent  and  weeping  over  his 
former  colleague  and  brother-in-law.  Did  he 
remember,  we  may  wonder,  his  great-uncle's 
behaviour  over  the  death  of  Pompey  ?  Un- 
fortunately he  could  not  resist  calling  his  friends 
to  him  and  reading  to  them  from  the  correspon- 
dence between  himself  and  Antony,  to  show  how 
reasonable  he  had  been,  and  how  insolent  and 
arrogant  was  Antony  in  his  replies.  Julius 
Caesar  had  not  thus  indulged  in  recriminations 
against  his  dead  rival ;  and  Octavian,  accustomed 
as  he  was  to  think  out  the  effect  of  his  actions, 
would  have  done  well  to  imitate  the  reticence 
of  his  kinsman. 

In  his  formal  entry  into  Alexandria  Octavian 
made  no  mistake.  Everything  was  designed  to 
produce  an  excellent  impression.  The  conqueror 
came  into  the  city  peacefully  holding  the  hand 
of  his  friend,  the  Pythagorean  philosopher 
Areios,  a  Greek  of  Alexandrian  birth,  whom  he 
had  taken  as  his  moral  guide.  He  came  to  the 
Gymnasium,  went  in,  and,  mounting  upon  a 
platform  which  had  been  set  up  for  him,  addressed 

292 


THE    ENDING    OF   A   TRAGEDY 

the  terror-stricken  crowd  who  bowed  themselves 
to  the  ground  before  him.  There  could  hardly 
have  been  a  greater  contrast  than  that  between 
the  receptions  given  by  the  Alexandrians  to  Julius 
Caesar  and  to  Octavian.  The  younger  man  had 
taken  no  risk  with  the  turbulent  citizens.  He 
had  them  completely  at  his  mercy.  He  hastened, 
however,  to  put  them  out  of  suspense,  bidding 
them  rise  from  the  ground,  as  he  forgave  them 
— firstly  for  the  sake  of  their  founder  Alexander, 
secondly  because  of  the  beauty  and  greatness 
of  their  city,*  and  thirdly  to  please  his  friend 
Areios.  This  last  touch  is  peculiarly  character- 
istic of  the  coming  Augustus,  so  anxious  to  show^ 
himself  the  friend  of  cultiure  and  of  learned  men. 

Continuing  on  his  course  of  studied  generosity, 
Octavian  allowed  Cleopatra  to  bury  the  body 
of  her  dead  lover.  "  Although  many,  both 
kings  and  commanders,  asked  for  the  body  to 
bury  it,  Caesar  did  not  take  it  from  Cleopatra," 
says  Plutarch  ;  "  but  it  was  interred  by  her  ov^ti 
hands  sumptuously  and  royally,  and  she  received 
for  that  purpose  all  that  she  wished." 

After  the  funeral  of  Antony,  Cleopatra  seems  to 
have  been  seized  once  more  with  the  desire,  which 

*  Dion  Cassius  substitutes  for  this  admiration  of  Alexandri  a 
a  reverence  for  the  god  Serapis,  which  he  makes  Octavian' s 
first  reason.  We  do  not  gather  from  the  Roman  poets  of 
the  period  that  the  gods  of  Egypt  were  likely  as  yet  to  be 
treated  with  much  reverence  by  the  latest  conquerors  of  the 
country. 

293 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

Proculeius  had  frustrated  before,  of  putting  an 
immediate  end  to  her  Hfe.  Plutarch  relates 
that  the  violence  of  her  lamentations  brought 
on  a  fever,  which  she  tried  to  make  a  pretext 
for  starving  herself  to  death.  She  had  as  an 
accomplice  her  physician  Olympos.*  But  Octa- 
vian  got  wind  of  her  design,  and  to  prevent  her 
from  cheating  him  of  his  triumph  by  suicide 
threatened  her  with  action  against  her  children, 
by  which  threats  Cleopatra  was  "  thrown  down 
as  by  engines  of  war,"  in  Plutarch's  phrase,  and 
allowed  herself  to  be  kept  alive.  Octavian  also 
decided  to  visit  her  himself.  The  following  is 
the  Greek  historian's  account  of  this  famous 
interview  : 

"  Cleopatra  chanced  to  be  lying  on  a  mattress, 
meanly  dressed,  and  as  he  entered  she  sprang  up 
in  a  single  robe  and  fell  at  his  feet  with  her  head 
and  face  in  the  greatest  disorder,  her  voice 
trembling,  and  her  eyes  dim  with  tears.  There 
were  also  visible  many  marks  of  the  blows  which 
she  had  inflicted  on  her  breast,  and  indeed  her 
body  seemed  in  no  better  plight  than  her  mind. 
Yet  that  charm  of  hers  and  her  bold  confidence 
in  her  beauty  were  not  completely  extinguished, 
but  though  she  was  thus  circumstanced  they  still 

*  Plutarch  ("  Antony,"  82)  mentions  a  journal  of  these 
events  kept  by  Olympos,  which  is  unhappily  lost.  It  seems 
likely  that  the  greater  simplicity  and  probability  of  Plutarch's 
account  of  Cleopatra's  last  days,  as  compared  with  other 
accounts,  is  due  to  his  use  of  this  journal. 

294 


THE    ENDING   OF   A    TRAGEDY 

shone  out  and  were  manifest  in  her  looks.  When 
Caesar  had  bidden  her  He  down  and  had  taken 
a  seat  near  her,  she  began  to  make  a  sort  of  justi- 
fication, and  tried  to  attribute  all  that  had 
happened  to  necessity  and  to  fear  of  Antony. 
But,  as  Caesar  met  her  with  an  answer  at  every 
point,  of  a  sudden  she  changed  her  tone,  and 
began  to  move  him  to  pity  with  her  prayers,  as 
though  clinging  most  eagerly  to  life..  Finally 
she  handed  to  him  a  list  of  all  her  treasures  ; 
and  when  Seleukos,  one  of  her  stewards,  declared 
that  she  was  concealing  some  things,  she  sprang 
up,  and,  catching  him  by  the  hair,  belaboured 
him  with  blows  on  the  face.  As  Caesar  smiled 
and  restrained  her,  she  asked :  '  Is  it  not 
scandalous,  Caesar,  that,  when  you  ha,ve  con- 
descended to  visit  me  and  speak  to  me  in  my 
present  condition,  my  slaves  should  make  ac- 
cusations against  me  because  I  have  kept  back 
some  women's  ornaments,  not  to  adorn  myself, 
poor  wretch,  but  in  order  to  give  a  few  things  to 
Octavia  and  your  wife  Livia,  that  through 
them  I  may  make  you  kinder  and  more  favourable 
to  me  ?  '  Caesar  was  pleased  with  these  words, 
being  fully  persuaded  that  she  wished  to  live. 
So,  when  he  had  told  her  that  he  left  these  things 
in  her  care,  and  that  in  every  other  way  he  would 
treat  her  better  than  she  expected,  he  went  away, 
thinking  that  he  had  deceived  her.  But  he  had 
deceived  himself." 

295 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

Plutarch,  it  may  be  seen,  does  not  hesitate  to 
charge  Octavian  with  intended  bad  faith  toward 
Cleopatra.  He  goes  on  to  say  that  she  learnt  that 
he  meant  to  leave  Egypt  for  Sjnria,  while  sending 
her  and  her  children  away  in  three  days'  time. 
This  could  only  mean  that  she  was  to  go  to 
Rome,  to  await  Octavian's  triumph.  Her  in- 
formant was  a  young  man  named  Dolabella,  son 
of  that  Dolabella  with  whom  we  are  already 
acquainted.  Although  he  was  on  Octavian's 
staff,  he  was,  according  to  Plutarch,  "  not  without 
a  certain  liking  for  Cleopatra  "  (perhaps  because 
of  her  conduct  toward  his  father),  and  therefore 
revealed  his  general's  intentions  to  her. 

The  discovery  of  the  fate  reserved  for  her  dashed 
to  the  ground  whatever  little  hopes  Cleopatra  had 
entertained  of  influencing  Octavian,  and  deter- 
mined her  to  take  the  only  remaining  course  to 
avoid  shame.  Since  the  fall  of  Alexandria  she 
had  repeatedly  uttered  the  passionate  exclama- 
tion :  "I  will  not  be  led  in  triumph  !  "  Now 
she  knew  that  she  was  destined  to  that  degradation 
which  her  sister  Arsinoe  had  undergone  at  Rome, 
and  the  Armenian  Artavasdes  and  his  family 
had  suffered  before  her  own  eyes  at  Alexandria. 
She,  with  her  children,  must  walk  in  chains — 
no  doubt  golden,  like  those  of  Artavasdes — along 
the  Sacred  Way  to  the  temple  of  Jupiter  on  the 
Capitoline,  she  who  four  years  before,  robed  as 
Isis,  had  sat  on  a  throne  of  gold  in  front  of  the 

296 


THE   ENDING   OF   A   TRAGEDY 

temple  of  Serapis  and  watched  a  Roman  Im- 
perator  riding  in  his  car  along  the  Canopic  Way 
to  present  his  trophies  to  her  and  bow  himself 
in  reverence  to  her  incarnation  of  her  favourite 
goddess.  This  was  to  be  the  end  of  dreams  of  an 
Eastern  Empire  under  a  new  dynasty  founded  by 
herself,  the  last  of  the  Lagidae,  and  her  sons  by 
the  two  great  Romans  who  had  been  her  lovers — 
this  or  death. 

To  a  woman  of  her  pride  the  choice  was  obvious. 
While  she  had  nourished  hope  of  obtaining 
Octavian's  consent  that  her  sons  should  inherit 
Egypt,  she  had  been  willing  to  live,  perhaps 
trusting  that  she  would  be  allowed  to  reside  in 
Alexandria  as  dowager  queen.  But  if  all  Oc- 
tavian's promises  of  "  magnanimity "  and  of 
"  better  treatment  for  her  than  she  expected  " 
meant  nothing,  then  the  only  thought  to  which 
she  could  attend  was  :  "I  will  not  be  led  in 
triumph  !  "  To  release  herself  it  would  be 
necessary  to  cheat  the  vigilance  of  Octavian, 
determined  to  keep  all  means  of  suicide  out  of 
her  reach.  But  if  Octavian  could  be  deceitful, 
he  had  not  the  wit  of  the  Egyptian  queen.  Many 
modern  writers  have  cast  doubt  upon  the  famous 
story  of  Cleopatra's  last  ruse,  whereby  she  won 
the  death  which  she  desired,  in  spite  of  those  who 
watched  her  to  see  that  she  did  not  escape  from 
their  master's  power.  Apart,  however,  from 
antiquity's  firm  belief  in  the  story,  at  the  time  of 

297  10* 


CLEOPATRA  OP  EGYPT 

her  death  and  afterwards,  there  is  about  it 
something  which  seems  to  compel  behef,  unless 
it  can  be  proved  that  no  such  reptile  as  is  required 
by  the  story  could  have  been  procured  by  Cleo- 
patra ;  and  this  proof  is  not  forthcoming.  It 
is  true  that  Plutarch  mentions  rival  legends, 
but  this  is  only  natural  in  the  case  of  a  death 
attended  with  considerable  mystery. 

Before  taking  the  last  step,  Cleopatra  asked  and 
obtained  permission  from  Octavian  to  perform 
the  ceremony  of  pouring  libations  on  the  tomb 
of  Antony.  Plutarch  puts  in  her  mouth  what 
must  be  merely  a  pretty  rhetorical  exercise, 
after  the  manner  dear  to  even  the  most  con- 
scientious of  ancient  historians,  ending  with  an 
appeal  to  Antony  :  "If  there  be  any  power  in 
the  gods  of  Italy  (since  these  of  this  land  have 
deserted  us),  deliver  not  up  your  wife  still  living, 
nor  let  yourself  be  triumphed  over  in  me.  Hide 
me  here,  bury  me  with  you,  for  of  my  ten  thousand 
iUs  there  is  none  so  grievous  as  this  short  time 
that  I  have  been  parted  from  you." 

Having  embraced  the  coffin  and  put  flowers 
upon  it,  Cleopatra  prepared  herself  for  the  death 
for  which  she  had  prayed.  She,  whose  name  was 
connected  with  all  that  was  elaborate  in  the  arts 
of  bathing  and  of  dining,  first  bathed  herself  and 
then  partook  of  her  last  banquet.  At  the  end  of 
the  meal  a  countryman  came  to  the  palace  which 
was  her  prison,  bringing  with  him  a  basket  of 

298 


THE   ENDING   OF   A   TRAGEDY 

figs.  The  sentries  at  the  door  challenged  him, 
but  seeing  the  figs  let  him  pass.  On  his  arrival 
Cleopatra  took  a  letter  which  she  had  already 
written,  sealed  it,  and  despatched  it  to  Octavian. 
Then  she  bade  all  leave  her  except  the  two  women 
whose  faithfulness  to  her  has  made  them  famous, 
and  had  the  door  of  the  room  closed.  She  was 
never  seen  again  alive.  When  Octavian  received 
her  letter  and  opened  it,  he  found  in  it  a  request 
that  she  might  be  buried  with  Antony.  He 
guessed  at  once  what  had  happened,  and  sent 
messengers  to  ascertain  the  truth.  They  found 
the  sentries  unaware  of  anything  unusual,  but 
on  opening  the  do(5r  saw  Cleopatra  stretched 
dead  on  a  golden  couch,  dressed  in  her  royal 
robes.  Of  the  two  waiting- women,  Iras  lay 
dying  at  her  mistress's  feet,  while  Charmion, 
though  she  also  had  but  a  few  moments  to  live, 
was  setting  straight  the  crown  upon  the  dead 
queen's  head.  "  What  work  is  here  ?  "  Shake- 
speare following  Plutarch,  makes  one  of  the  men 
ask  : 

"  Channian,  is  this  well  done  ?  " 
"  It  is  well  done,  and  fitting  for  a  princess 
Descended  from  so  many  royal  kings  !  " 

So  saying,  Charmion  too  fell  dead  by  the  side  of 
the  couch. 

"  Now  it  is  said,"  continues  Plutarch,  "  that 
the  asp  was  brought  in  covered  with  the  figs  and 
leaves,  Cleopatra  having  so  ordered,   that  the 

299 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

reptile  might  fasten  upon  her  body  without  her 
being  aware  of  it.     But  when  she  lifted  up  some 
of  the  figs  and  saw  it,  she  exclaimed,  '  Here  then 
it  is  !  '  and  baring  her  arm  offered  it  to  be  bitten. 
Others  tell  how  the  asp  was  kept  in  a  pitcher, 
and  that  Cleopatra  drew  it  out  with  a  golden 
distaff  and  irritated  it  until  it  sprang  at  her  arm 
and  clung  to   it.     But  the  real   truth   nobody 
knows  ;    for  it  was  also  said  that  she  carried 
poison  about  her  in  a  hollow  pin,*  which  she  hid 
in  her  hair.     Yet  no  spots  broke  out  upon  her 
body  nor  any  other  marks  of  poison.     Nor  was 
the  reptile  found  within  the  Palace  ;    but  some 
professed  that  they  observed  its  trail  near  the 
sea,  in  that  direction  whither  the  chamber  faced 
and  where  the  windows  were.     Some  also  say 
that  Cleopatra's  arm  was  seen  to  have  two  small 
indistinct  punctures  ;   and  it  appears  that  Caesar 
believed  this,   for   at  the   triumph  a  figure   of 


*  The  word  used  by  Plutarch  occurs  nowhere  else  with 
this  meaning  ;  but  a  much  later  writer,  Xiphilin  of  the 
eleventh  century  a.d.,  also  speaks  of  a  pin  or  needle.  Strabo 
knows  of  both  stories,  of  the  asp  and  the  poisoned  instru- 
ment. The  contemporary  Roman  theory  was  evidently 
that  attributed  by  Plutarch  to  Octavian.  Propertius 
(III.  xi.  53-4)  alludes  to  the  figure  carried  in  the  triumph 
with  brachia  sacris  admorsa  colubris.  With  regard  to  the 
asp,  Wilkinson  ("  The  Ancient  Egyptians,"  III.  pp.  336-7) 
remarks  that  the  Egyptian  asp,  a  species  of  cobra  da  capello, 
still  very  common  ia  the  country,  is  as  a  rule  three  or  four 
feet  long,  and  was  therefore  too  big  for  Cleopatra's  purpose 
(if  we  accept  Plutarch's  story),  and  suggests  that  some  smaller 
poisonous  snake  was  used,  being  subsequently  miscalled  an 
"  asp." 

300 


THE   ENDING   OF   A   TRAGEDY 

Cleopatra  was  carried  with  the  asp  clinging  to 
her." 

Octavian,  we  are  told,  although  vexed  by 
Cleopatra's  death  (which  robbed  his  triumph  of 
the  feature  to  which  the  Romans  most  looked 
forward),  admired  her  nobility  of  mind  and 
ordered  her  body  to  be  buried  with  royal 
ceremonial  beside  that  of  Antony.  He  also 
refrained  from  throwing  down  the  statues  erected 
to  her,  while  removing  all  Antony's  statues. 
This  honour  to  Cleopatra  is  attributed  by 
Plutarch  not  to  Octavian' s  generosity,  but  to 
the  fact  that  one  of  her  friends,  Archibios,  gave 
him  a  present  of  two  thousand  talents  (£487,000) 
to  spare  the  statues.  Octavian  soon  showed 
how  unwise  Cleopatra  would  have  been  to  trust 
to  his  vague  promises  of  good  treatment  in 
response  to  her  prayers  on  behalf  of  her  children. 
Hardly  had  she  removed  her  own  person  from 
his  power  when  he  put  to  death  her  first-born, 
the  sharer  in  her  rule  over  Egypt.  Caesarion,  as 
we  have  seen,  had  been  sent  out  of  harm's  way 
with  his  tutor  Rhodon,  provided  with  treasure 
for  his  support.  He  had  probably  not  left  the 
confines  of  Egypt,  however,  when  Rhodon  per- 
suaded him  to  return  to  Alexandria,  saying  that 
Octavian  meant  him  to  rule  over  the  kingdom. 
Caesarion,  therefore,  came  back  and  put  himself 
in  the  hands  of  the  kinsman  who  had  always 
refused   to   recognise   his   connection   with   the 

301 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

Dictator.  It  is  said  that  Octavian  hesitated 
what  to  do  with  his  voluntary  captive  until 
Areios  (who,  if  the  tale  is  true,  was  as  bad  a 
villain  as  most  of  the  Alexandrian  Greek  teachers 
of  his  time)  decided  him  by  misquoting  Homer* 
to  the  effect  that  "  a  multitude  of  Caesars  is  no 
good  thing."  So  died,  after  a  nominal  reign 
of  about  a  dozen  years,  the  last  Son  of  the  Sun, 
Ptolemy  XVI,  happily  too  late  for  his  mother 
to  know  how  truly  she  had  feared  on  his  behalf. 

As  he  showed  no  mercy  to  a  boy  related  to 
himself  by  blood,  it  was  hardly  to  be  expected 
that  Octavian  would  spare  Antony's  children. 
The  death  of  the  eldest  of  them,  however,  con- 
tented him.  Antyllus  had  attempted  to  escape, 
but  was  betrayed  by  another  of  the  infamous 
gang  of  tutors  of  the  day,  a  man  named  Theo- 
dores. His  head  was  cut  off  by  the  soldiers  to 
take  to  Octavian  (to  whose  daughter  Julia, 
Antyllus  had  once  been  betrothed),  and  his  body 
left  lying  in  the  chapel  erected  by  Cleopatra  to 
Julius  Caesar,  at  the  foot  of  whose  statue  he 
had  vainly  sought  safety.  Theodores  took  the 
opportunity  of  stealing  a  valuable  jewel  which 
his  pupil  had  been  used  to  wear  about  his  neck, 
for  which  he  was  seized  and  crucified.  We  do 
not  hear  whether  Rhodon  was  as  suitably 
rewarded  as  his  fellow-scoundrel. 

The  death  of  Cleopatra's  and  Antony's  eldest 

•  "  Iliad,"  II.  204. 
302 


THE   ENDING   OF   A   TRAGEDY 

sons  appeared  to  satisfy  the  thirst  for  innocent 
blood,  the  shedding  of  which  is  a  sufficient 
criticism  of  the  remark  of  Velleius  that  "  it  did 
honour  both  to  Caesar's  fortune  and  to  his 
clemency  that  not  one  of  those  who  bore  arms 
against  him  was  put  to  death  by  him."  Their 
joint  children,  Alexander  Helios,  Cleopatra 
Selene,  and  Ptolemy,  were  unharmed,  and  we 
next  hear  of  them  in  Rome,  being  brought  up 
by  the  excellent  Octavia  in  the  company  of  her 
two  daughters  Antonia  major  and  minor,  as 
they  are  known  in  history,  and  Julus,  the  brother 
of  Antyllus.  Cleopatra  Selene  lived  to  marry 
Juba  the  Numidian,  who  as  an  infant  had  figured 
in  Julius  Caesar's  triumph  with  Arsinoe  and 
Vercingetorix.  Juba  was  both  a  learned  man 
(one  of  the  most  learned  of  his  day,  in  fact, 
although  only  a  few  fragments  of  his  works 
survive)  and  a  wise  diplomatist,  for  he  sided 
with  Octavian  and  was  given  as  a  reward  the 
kingdom  of  Numidia  which  his  father  had  for- 
feited to  Rome.  Five  years  later  his  patron, 
now  the  Emperor  Augustus,  gave  him  Maure- 
tania  in  exchange  for  Numidia,  and  here  he 
reigned  in  peace  with  his  bride  and  her  two 
brothers,  whom  he  received  as  guests. 

There  is  no  record  of  the  line  of  Cleopatra  the 
Great  being  carried  on  by  Alexander  Helios  or 
by  Ptolemy,  son  of  Antony  ;  but  a  son  was  born 
to  Juba  and  Cleopatra  Selene,  to  whom  was  given 

303 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

the  Lagid  name  of  Ptolemy.  He  seems  to  have 
succeeded  his  father  on  the  throne  of  Mauretania 
about  19  A.D.  Little  is  known  of  him  except 
that  he  was  very  rich,  and  that  in  40  a.d.  he  was 
invited  to  Rome  by  the  ferocious  madman 
Caligula,  great-grandson  both  of  Antony  (by 
Octavia)  and  of  Octavian.  He  was  put  to  death 
in  Rome,  and  thus,  as  far  as  v/e  know,  the  last 
descendant  of  Cleopatra  the  Great  and  of  Antony 
perished  at  the  hands  of  a  descendant  of  Antony 
and  Octavia.* 


*  Unless  Tacitus  ("  History,"  V.  9)  is  right  in  assigning  as 
wife  to  Antonius  Felix,  procurator  of  Judaea  under  the 
Emperors  Claudius  and  Nero,  a  -wiie  Drusilla,  granddaughter 
of  Cleopatra  and  Antony.  This  involves  Felix  marrying  in 
succession  two  wives  called  Drusilla,  for  we  learn  from 
Josephus,  supported  by  the  "  Acts  of  the  Apostles,"  that  he 
took  from  her  former  husband,  the  King  of  Emesa,  the 
Jewish  Drusilla,  daughter  of  Herod  Agrippa.  Tacitus  does 
not  say  that  his  Drusilla  was  the  daughter  of  Cleopatra 
Selene,  so  that  it  is  possible  that  Alexander  Helios  or  Ptolemy 
was  her  father. 


304 


CHAPTER  XVII 

CLEOPATRA  THE  GREAT 

Whatever  view  we  may  take  of  the  moral 
character  of  Cleopatra — and  we  have  a  wide 
choice  of  writers  whom  we  may  follow  if  we  please, 
from  the  time  of  Josephus,  who  held  her  to  be  a 
monster,  to  that  of  the  modem  Adolf  Stahr,  who 
boldly  defends  her  virtue — ^we  are  bound  to  see 
in  her  a  very  commanding  figure  ;  indeed,  the 
most  commanding  female  figure  of  antiquity. 
History  has  recognised  this  by  bestowing  on  her 
an  epithet  which  it  most  rarely  accords  to  women 
sovereigns  and  calling  her  "  Cleopatra  the  Great." 
If  in  part  the  title  serves  to  distinguish  her  from 
the  five  previous  bearers  of  her  name  in  the  family 
of  the  Lagidae,  it  also  records  a  judgment  on  her 
importance  in  the  world.  Still,  as  in  the  case  of 
men  rulers  there  are  numerous  reasons,  some  on 
close  examination  curiously  inadequate,  why 
greatness  has  been  thrust  upon  certain  people,  so, 
too,  with  women  there  is  no  fixed  standard  by 
which  claims  to  the  name  of  "  The  Great  "  are 
adjudicated.  It  is  not,  therefore,  entireh-  super- 
fluous to  ask  whether  the  last  Queen  of  Eg^'pt  is 
or  is  not  entitled  to  be  called  great. 

305 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

It  must  be  admitted  that  Cleopatra  is  a 
peculiarly  difficult  subject  for  a  just  verdict, 
because  of  the  nature  of  the  evidence  concerning 
her  life.  The  witnesses  are  plentiful,  but  there  is 
not  one  amongst  them  who  can  be  described  as  a 

'  good  witness.  None  of  them  came  to  her  case 
with  an  unbiassed  mind  or  even  resolved  to 
mention  any  facts  in  her  favour,  which  might 
mitigate  the  general  harshness  of  their  account  of 
her.  Julius  Caesar  is  all  but  silent  about  her, 
having  his  mouth  closed  for  a  reason  to  himself 
very  sufficient.  Of  the  later  Latin  writers,  the 
historians  are  all  (with  the  exception  of  Suetonius, 
if  we  can  call  him  an  historian)  so  concerned  to 
glorify  Augustus,  and  through  him  his  successors, 
that  it  is  out  of  the  question  for  them  to  see  any 
merit  in  the  consort  of  Antony.  It  is  the  same, 
or  rather  worse,  with  the  poets,  to  whom  to  see 
^  the  personages  of  history  in  plain  black  and  white 
and  in  no  intermediate  shades  was  almost  a 
condition  of  continuing  to  exist  as  poets.  Even 
that  stranded  Republican,  Lucan,  had  no  fair 
word  for  Cleopatra,  the  corrupter  of  Antony. 
Moreover,  to  all  of  these  writers,  as  Romans,  she 
was  an  Egyptian,  the  stranger  for  whom  the 
Roman  half -brick  was  never  wanting. 

As  for  the  Greeks,  we  never  find  in  them  any 
sympathy  inspired  by  the  Macedonian  descent  of 

^  Cleopatra.     Writing  under  the  Roman  Empire, 
they   took   heed   to   see   as   Rome   saw.     Dion 

306 


CLEOPATRA   THE   GREAT 

Cassius  is  as  much  under  the  spell  of  the  Caesarian 
tradition  as  any  of  his  Latin  contemporaries. 
Appian,  a  poor  and  undiscriminating  historian, 
has  little  of  value  to  say  about  Cleopatra.  Plu- 
tarch, more  impartial  than  others  between  the 
two  great  parties  which  destroyed  the  Republic 
in  their  struggle,  readily  sacrifices  her  in  his 
attempt  to  be  just  toward  Antony. 

There  remains  Josephus,  who  perhaps  hated 
Cleopatra  as  sincerely  as  any  of  the  Roman  poets 
pretended  to  hate  her.  Now  it  is  a  noteworthy 
fact  that,  of  the  four  Lagidae  who  have  come  down 
to  posterity  as  the  most  criminal  of  their  family, 
Ptolemy  IV  Philopator,  Ptolemy  IX  Physkon, 
Ptolemy  XIII  Auletes,  and  Cleopatra  VI,  the  two 
first-named  and  Cleopatra  are  all  known  to  have 
been  anti- Jewish,  Philopator  and  Physkon  con- 
sistently so  and  Cleopatra  at  least  occasionally. 
Whatever  else  we  may  think  about  Josephus,  we 
must  admit  him  to  have  been  a  patriotic  Jew,  and 
we  cannot  therefore  blame  him  for  taking  into 
account  in  his  judgment  of  the  Lagidae  their 
behaviour  toward  his  countrymen.  When  there 
comes,  however,  a  necessity  for  estimating  the 
probability  of  unsupported  statements  of 
Josephus  concerning  one  of  these  anti- Jewish 
Macedonian  rulers  of  Egypt,  we  must  obviously 
be  sceptical.  And  unfortunately  the  general 
character  of  Josephus's  history  is  such  as  to 
leave  us  without  any  confidence  in  what  he  says, 

307 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

unless  we  know  from  other  sources  that  he  is 
telling  the  truth.  To  repeat  what  has  been  said 
in  an  earlier  chapter,  no  one  has  a  right  to  con- 
demn the  worst  of  queens,  even  as  bad  a  woman 
as  the  partisans  of  Octavian  represented  Cleopatra 
to  be,  on  the  statements  of  a  writer  who  could 
make  a  hero  of  Herod  the  Great  and  display  such 
inability  as  does  Josephus  to  look  on  any 
character  or  event  without  the  narrowest  race- 
prejudice. 

While,  then,  there  is  not  a  single  witness  in 
Cleopatra's  favour,  there  are  very  clear  reasons 
why  all,  Romans,  Greeks,  and  Jews  alike,  should 
have  been  biassed  against  her.  It  is  still  possible 
that  she  was  a  great  woman,  and  not  merely  a 
great  monster  such  as  the  old  writers,  for  political 
or  personal  reasons,  united  to  make  her  out  to  be. 
The  only  evidence  which  can  be  adduced,  how- 
ever, must  be  sought  among  the  testimonies  of 
her  enemies,  and  it  is  very  natural  that  the  task  of 
defending  her  has  attracted  very  few,  and  has 
then  proved  beyond  their  powers.  To  build  a 
defence  out  of  the  speeches  of  the  prosecutor  and 
the  statements  of  those  whom  he  calls  in  his 
support  is  too  difficult  for  the  intellect  of  a 
Quixote.  At  the  best  he  can  save  a  few  rags — 
mostly,  perhaps,  of  Coan  silk  in  Cleopatra's  case — 
wherewith  to  veil  his  client  from  the  censorious 
gaze  of  the  jury. 

Cleopatra  was  the  final  product  of  a  very 
308 


CLEOPATRA   THE   GREAT 

corrupt  and  extremely  wealthy  royal  family  ruling 
over  the  richest  country  in  the  ancient  world,  a 
country  doomed  from  before  her  birth  to  fall  a 
pre}-  to  the  insatiable  hunger  of  the  one  great 
military  nation  remaining  in  that  world.  From 
early  years  she  was  brought  in  contact  with  some 
of  the  most  unscrupulous  representatives  of  the 
conquering  race,  and  shown  that,  if  she  was  to 
play  any  part  in  her  ancestral  kingdom's  history, 
she  must  play  it  in  company  with  them.  From 
her  father's  example  in  Egypt  she  saw  how  a  man 
of  her  house  could  preserve  a  throne  in  dealing 
with  such  people,  from  her  uncle's  example  in 
C}^rus  how  a  throne  could  be  lost  by  a  man. 
She  was  a  woman,  and,  while  profiting  by  her 
father's  and  uncle's  examples,  must  allow  for  the 
modifying  effect  of  sex  in  handling  the  situation. 
Had  she  not  been  a  Lagid  princess,  she  might 
have  declined  the  task  and  left  it  to  her  brother 
Ptolemy,  four  years  her  junior,  when  he  should 
attain  his  majorit}^  But  the  descendant  of 
other  ambitious  Cleopatras  and  the  sister  of  the 
fourth  Berenike  could  not  stand  aside  from  the 
affairs  of  State.  She  was  prepared  to  face  the 
family  difficulties,  and,  so  far  from  wishing  to 
shelter  herself  behind  her  brother,  she  tried  to 
prevent  him  from  exerting  the  influence  which 
was  legally  his.  In  the  brief  first  period  of  her 
co-regency  with  Ptolemy  XIV,  she  was  soon 
placed  in  the  position  of  having  to  decide  how  to 

309 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

treat  one  of  those  Romans  whose  presence  in 
Alexandria  boded  so  little  good  to  Egypt.  She  re- 
ceived Cnaeus  Pompeius  the  younger  as  an  ambas- 
sador come  to  ask  a  favour  of  her  queenship,  and 
also,  if  report  did  not  wrong  her,  as  a  lover. 

Her  attitude  to  Cnaeus  Pompeius  was  typical 
of  her  conduct  toward  the  Romans  throughout 
her  life.  Whatever  else  these  dreaded  foreigners 
might  be,  they  were  at  least  emphatically  men. 
To  meet  their  aggressive  virility  Cleopatra  used 
the  only  possible  defence,  her  own  femininity.  She 
never  neglected  the  parental  weapon  of  bribery, 
combined  by  her  as  by  Auletes  himself  with  an 
occasional  assassination,  when  it  seemed  safe  to 
employ  the  assassin's  aid  ;  but  it  was  on  her  sex 
that  she  relied  when  she  desired  to  effect  a  great 
stroke. 

As  a  woman  she  was  decidedly  well  equipped  to 
fight  against  even  such  trained  conquerors  of 
women  as  the  Roman  public  men  of  her  day.  She 
united  good  looks  with  natural  intelligence  and  a 
versatile  education.  Something  has  already  been 
said  in  the  Third  Chapter  of  this  book  with  refer- 
ence to  these  points,  but  we  may  now  return  to 
them  again. 

As  regards  her  beauty,  there  is  no  general 
agreement  among  ancient  authors,  we  have  seen, 
and  Dion  Cassius's  description  of  her  as  "  most 
exceedingly  beautiful  of  women  "  is  discounted  by 
Plutarch's  far  more  guarded  and  sober  phrases. 

310 


CLEOPATRA   THE    GREAT 

We  have,  to  check  what  the  old  writers  say,  a  fair 
number  of  well-authenticated  representations  of 
Cleopatra,  if  the  many  statues  of  her  which 
existed  in  her  lifetime  have  altogether  vanished. 
There  is  a  well-known  bust  executed  in  fine  lime- 
stone, purchased  by  the  British  Museum  in  1879, 
which  so  resembles  the  head  on  the  coins  as  to  be 
almost  certainly  assignable  to  Cleopatra.  The 
strongly  aquiline  nose  is  a  remarkable  feature  in 
the  bust,  as  on  the  coins,  of  which  there  are  more 
than  a  dozen  whose  genuineness  is  not  disputed. 
Further,  there  are  the  Egyptian  sculptures  of 
Cleopatra  at  Dendera,  and  there  were  those  at 
Erment,  some  fortunately  portrayed  for  us  in  the 
volumes  of  Lepsius,  though  the  originals  are  gone. 
The  Egyptian  sculptures  we  must  dismiss  as 
valueless,  however  interesting.  Cleopatra  at  Den- 
dera is  almost  identical  in  features,  wig,  and  head- 
dress (except  for  Cleopatra's  surmounting  horns 
and  solar  disk)  with  the  painting  at  Deir  El- 
Bahari  of  Queen  Ahmes,  mother  of  the  great 
Hatshepsut.*  So,  whether  or  not  the  Dendera 
representation  shows  that  Cleopatra  ever,  on 
State  occasions,  put  on  the  elaborately  plaited 
wig  of  the  older  Egyptian  queens,  it  certainly 
does  not  give  us  any  guide  as  to  Cleopatra's 

•  See  a  reproduction  in  colours  of  Queen  Ahmes  in  Miss 
Janet  R.  Buttles'  "  The  Queens  of  Egypt."  Miss  Buttles 
mentions  also  the  resemblance  of  the  two  portraits  to  the 
wooden  statuette  of  Nefertari,  grandmother  of  Ahmes,  at 
the  Louvre. 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

features.  We  only  see  a  conventional  type  of 
head  perpetuated  by  the  influence  of  the  Egyptian 
priestly  sculptors.  As  for  the  Erment  pictures,  it 
is  evident  that  there  is  no  attempt  at  portraiture 
in  them.  Cleopatra  is  barely  distinguishable 
except  by  costume  from  Isis,  Nephthys,  Hathor, 
or  the  other  goddesses  present  at  the  divine  birth. 
We  come  to  the  coins,  and  here  we  should  feel 
more  satisfied  if  there  were  a  greater  uniformity 
between  the  various  profiles.  We  may  perhaps 
abandon  the  features  shown  on  the  silver  coin 
struck  at  Askalon  in  B.C.  50,  as  they  are  too  like 
the  features  on  the  Askalon  coins  of  Ptolemy 
Auletes  (themselves  dissimilar  from  those  on  the 
other  coins  of  Auletes)  and  of  Ptolemy  XIV,  and 
we  may  therefore  be  dealing  again  with  a  conven- 
tional type.  Even  if  we  leave  out  the  Askalon 
Cleopatra,  however,  we  are  obliged  to  admit 
that  the  designers  of  her  coins  saw  Cleopatra  in 
very  different  lights,  and  that  some  of  them  must 
have  been  very  poor  artists,  almost  caricaturists 
indeed.  Neglecting  the  worst  productions,  and 
comparing  some  of  the  best  coins  and  the  British 
Museum  bust,  we  may  arrive  at  some  sort  of  idea 
how  the  charmer  of  Caesar  and  of  Antony  looked, 
though  we  have  no  clue  to  her  colouring  or  the 
shade  of  her  hair.  It  can  hardly  be  necessary  to 
point  out  again  that  there  is  no  warrant  for  speak- 
ing of  her  as  a  "  gipsy  "  ;  quite  possibly  she  was 
fair-haired  like  her  ancestor  Ptolemy  Philadelphos, 

312 


CLEOPATRA   THE    GREAT 

according  to  the  seventeenth  Idyll  of  Theocritus. 
All  that  we  can  feel  certain  about  is  that  she 
had  not  a  short  nose.  As  M.  Henry  Houssaye 
amusingly  says,  "  Pascal's  remark  is  well  known  : 
'  Had  Cleopatra's  nose  been  shorter,  the  whole 
face  of  the  globe  might  have  been  changed.' 
Pascal  was  not  a  numismatist.  Otherwise  he 
would  have  written  :  '  Had  Cleopatra's  nose 
been  longer.  .  .'  "* 

An  examination  of  the  nearest  approaches  which 
we  have  to  likenesses  of  Cleopatra  makes  us  de- 
cidedly inclined  to  accept  Plutarch's  statement 
about  her  beauty  being  "  not  altogether  beyond 
comparison,  nor  such  that  no  one  could  look  upon 
her  without  being  struck  by  it."  That  she  made 
the  best  of  it  we  can  readily  believe,  and  legend 
credits  her  with  the  invention  of  baths  which 
rivalled  in  effect  the  fountain  of  youth,  and  the 
use  of  many  wonderful  unguents,  for  the  com- 
poimding  of  which  Eg^'pt  was  famous  in  anti- 
quity— such  as  that  mentioned  by  Pliny,  which, 

*  "  Aspasie — Cleopatra — Theodora,"  p.  325.  On  the  same 
page  M.  Houssaye  speaks  of  a  copper  coin  on  view  in  the  Rue 
Richelieu,  Paris,  which  he  describes  as  follows  :  "  The  head 
gives  the  impression  of  a  tall,  big  woman.  The  forehead  is 
straight  and  low  ;  moreover  the  undulations  of  the  hair 
half  cover  it.  The  eye  is  large  and  far  away  from  the  nose, 
which  is  aquiline,  strong,  and  extremely  long.  The  mouth 
is  pretty,  though  very  large.  The  chin  is  very  prominent. 
Although  these  features  are  rather  coarse  and  hard,  a  certain 
charm  is  revealed  by  the  physiognomy  as  a  whole,  owing  to 
the  beauty  of  the  eyes  and  the  strange  grace  of  the  mouth. 
If  the  nose  had  not  been  so  long  and  pointed,  the  wayward 
and  ardently  voluptuous  woman  shown  in  this  profile  might 
pass  for  beautiful." 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

cost  {1.6  a  pound,  was  imperceptible  to  the  person 
anointed  with  it,  but  excited  desire  in  others. 
The  episode  of  her  struggles  with  Herod  over  the 
Jericho  gardens,  and  with  the  Nabathaean  Arabs 
for  similar  treasures  which  she  coveted  from  them, 
is  the  best  testimony  which  we  have  to  her  love 
of  all  that  pleases  the  organ  of  smell. 

Cleopatra's  merely  sensual  appeal,  however, 
was  clearly  excelled  by  the  charm  which  lay  in 
her  general  manner,  "  the  peculiar  character 
which  was  evident  in  all  that  she  said  or  did,"  as 
Plutarch  writes.  Her  sweet-toned  voice  was 
employed  not  only  to  captivate  by  its  sound,  but 
to  also  reveal  the  quick  intelligence  and  the 
widely  educated  mind.  We  are  compelled  to 
take  for  granted  her  verbal  powers,  for  the  few 
actual  examples  of  her  wit  which  have  been 
preserved  do  not  appear,  to  the  modern  reader  at 
least,  at  all  brilliant.  The  memoir-writer  who 
treasures  up  the  sayings  of  notable  people  with 
whom  he  comes  in  contact  was  indeed  rare  in  the 
ancient  world,  and  was  wont  to  devote  his  at- 
tention to  the  philosophers  rather  than  to  the 
wits.  We  must  be  content,  therefore,  with  the 
knowledge  that  Julius  Caesar  and  Antony  were 
both  fascinated  with  her  ability  to  amuse  them 
as  well  as  make  love  to  them  and  surround  them 
with  luxury,  and  must  not  ask  to  be  shown  a 
picture  of  Cleopatra,  as  it  were,  in  action.*     We 

*  For  the  nearest  approach  to  such  a  picture  see  p.  163. 


CLEOPATRA   THE    GREAT 

know  enough,  however,  from  this  very  fact  of  her 
conquest  of  Caesar  and  Antony,  not  to  mention 
any  lesser  folk,  to  see  that  it  was  her  wonderful 
adaptability  which  gave  Cleopatra  her  victories. 
If  her  tongue  was  like  a  many-stringed  instru- 
ment, capable  of  being  turned  to  any  language 
that  she  pleased,  still  more  was  this  the  case  with 
her  mind.  She  failed,  as  we  have  seen,  to  make  a 
favourable  impression  upon  Ahenobarbus  and  on 
other  Roman  senators  who  joined  Antony  at 
Ephesus  early  in  the  year  32  ;  but  from  the 
beginning  her  attitude  toward  them  was  one  of 
defiance.  She  did  not  desire  their  presence  in 
Antony's  camp,  and  wished  for  nothing  better 
than  to  drive  them  away  again  to  Rome. 

It  is  Cleopatra's  genius  for  cajolery,  coupled 
with  the  readiness  attributed  to  her  by  the 
admirers  of  her  two  chief  enemies,  Octavian  and 
Herod,  to  accept  any  man  as  a  lover,  that  gained 
for  her  in  history  the  unenviable  reputation  of  a 
crowned  courtesan.  The  charge  is  impossible  to 
rebut  for  the  reason  already  given,  that  the  only 
testimonies  which  we  have  are  those  of  the 
witnesses  for  the  prosecution.  We  can  only  say, 
by  way  of  comment  on  the  accusation,  that  she 
can  certainly  be  proved  to  have  had  two  lovers, 
one  of  whom  was  credited  with  the  intention  of 
making  her  his  wife,  while  the  other  actually  did 
so  after  a  fashion — or,  according  to  some,  with 
full  legal  ceremonies  as  early  as  36  B.C.     With 

315 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

regard  to  a  third  lover,  Cnaeus  Pompeius, 
Plutarch  seems  to  accept  the  intrigue  ;  but  if  it 
ever  existed  it  must  have  been  of  very  brief 
duration,  as  the  young  man  only  visited  Alexan- 
dria to  fetch  military  support  for  his  father.  As 
for  Dellius,  what  is  more  likely  than  that  this  un- 
pleasant personage  himself  spread  the  tale  after 
he  had  deserted  Antony  ?  Concerning  Josephus's 
account  of  Cleopatra's  unsuccessful  attempt  on 
the  virtue  (!)  of  Herod,  nothing  need  be  added  to 
what  has  already  been  said. 

On  the  most  favourable  construction,  Cleo- 
patra's story,  viewed  from  one  point  only, 
amounts  to  this.  When  she  was  seventeen  or 
eighteen  she  took  as  her  husband,  in  accordance 
with  the  terms  of  her  father's  will  and  the 
Egyptian  royal  custom,  her  eleven-year-old 
brother  Ptolemy  XIV,  with  whom  she  was  to 
share  the  throne.  A  quarrel  broke  out  between 
her  and  her  brother's  advisers,  and  three  years 
later  she  fled  for  her  life.  There  appeared  upon 
the  scene  Julius  Caesar,  the  greatest  man  of  the 
greatest  nation  of  the  day.  He  was  fifty-four 
years  of  age,  and  had  a  reputation  for  gallantry 
in  all  senses  of  the  word.  Cleopatra  contrived 
an  interview  with  him,  and  at  once  won  him  to 
her  cause,  while  surrendering  to  him  her  person. 
Caesar  succeeded  in  establishing  her  on  the 
throne,  after  a  battle  in  which  her  husband  was 
killed.     He  allowed  her  charms  to  detain  him  in 

316 


CLEOPATRA   THE   GREAT 

Egypt  far  longer  than  was  good  for  his  reputation, 
but  ultimately  left  after  giving  her  as  a  nominal 
second  husband  her  remaining  brother  Ptolemy 
XV,  who  was  only  ten  or  eleven.  When  he  had 
completed  his  campaigns,  he  summoned  her  ta 
him  at  Rome,  whither  she  came  with  Ptolemy 
and  with  Caesarion,  the  son  whom  she  bore  to 
Caesar  after  he  had  left  her  in  Egypt.  It  was 
reported  that  the  Dictator  was  actually  about  - 
to  make  her  his  wife  when  he  was  assassin- 
ated, leaving  her  to  escape  back  to  Egypt, 
In  the  meantime  Ptolemy  XV  disappeared, 
we  know  not  how,  and  left  Cleopatra  doubly 
widowed. 

There  is  a  gap  in  the  story  now  until  Antony 
appears  in  the  East  after  avenging  Caesar's 
murder  at  Philippi.  The  Triumvir,  at  the  age  of 
forty-two,  had  an  even  more  notorious  reputation  , 
than  the  man  to  whose  position  he  had  in  part 
succeeded.  When  he  called  Cleopatra  to  him 
there  was  but  one  result  to  be  expected.  Cleo- 
patra yielded  again,  as  she  had  yielded  to  Caesar,  . 
at  the  price  of  securing  her  kingdom.  From  this 
time  onward,  although  their  connection  was 
broken  off  for  a  period  of  more  than  three  years, 
she  set  herself  to  mould  Antony  to  her  will,  and 
to  increase  that  realm  which,  at  the  beginning 
of  her  reign,  she  appeared  likely  not  merely  to 
fail  to  keep  intact,  but  even  to  lose  altogether. 
There  are  reasons  for  thinking  that  she  tried  to 

317 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

persuade  Antony  to  sever  his  connection  with 
Rome  entirely  so  that  he  might  become  King  of  a 
greater  Egypt,  with  her  as  his  heiress-wife. 
Antony  could  not  bring  himself  to  renounce  his 
birthright  as  a  Roman  citizen,  and  therefore 
obviously  could  not  accept  the  kingship  of  Egypt. 
He  continued  to  attempt  to  combine  two  in- 
compatible careers,  those  of  a  Roman  Imperator 

^  and  of  an  Oriental  monarch  without  a  crown. 
He  made  Cleopatra  his  wife,  however,  as  far  as  he 
could,  in  view  of  the  fact  that  he  had  another 
wife  at  Rome,  and  at  last  went  so  far  as  to 
repudiate  Octavia  for  her  sake.  Cleopatra  had 
apparently  attained  her  object.  Then  came 
Actium  and  the  invasion  of  Egypt,  and  with  the 
suicides  of  Antony  and  Cleopatra  the  story  comes 
to  an  end. 

The  Queen  of  Egypt,  it  will  be  readily  admitted, 
was  no  earlier  Catherine  the  Great,  unless  we  go 
beyond  the  plain  outlines  of  this  story  and  accept 
her  enemies'  attribution  to  her  of  many  other 
lovers,  most  of  whose  names  they  have  not 
troubled  to  record — recognising  that  for  their 
purpose  the  anon5mious  charge  is  the  safest.  But 
if  we  adhere  to  statements  which  can  be  proved, 
we  find  Cleopatra  allying  herself  with  two  men 
who  seemed  to  her  to  have  the  destinies  of  the 
world  in  their  control.     Both  of  her  great  intrigues 

'  were  fraught  with  profound  political  results  for 
Egypt.     We  do  not,  therefore,  see  her  guided  by 

318 


CLEOPATRA   THE   GREAT 

sensual  motives,  but  rather  using  her  senses  as 
the  instruments  of  her  brain. 

It  remains  to  ask  whether  her  heart  was  at  all 
touched  in  the  two  affairs  which  her  clever  head 
turned  to  such  purpose.  With  regard  to  her  con- 
nection with  the  Dictator  Caesar  it  is  very  difficult 
to  pronounce.  Cleopatra  met  Caesar  when  she 
was  twenty-one  and  he  was  thirty-three  years 
older.  Her  very  life  was  at  stake  unless  she 
could  win  him  to  her.  She  made  a  daring  attempt 
and  succeeded  so  far  as  to  obtain  an  influence 
over  him  which  no  other  woman  had  managed 
to  gain,  thereby  unwittingly  contributing  to  his 
fall.  What  effect  he  produced  upon  her  we  have 
no  means  of  judging  ;  for  there  is  not  a  single 
sentence  of  evidence  upon  the  subject,  as  might 
have  been  expected,  all  the  early  writers  being 
careless  or  ignorant  of  any  feelings  which  she 
might  possess.  After  his  death  she  endeavoured 
to  help  the  Caesarian  cause,  as  she  was  quite 
justified  in  pointing  out  to  Antony.  Moreover, 
she  remained  attached  to  their  son  Caesarion, 
though  we  are  unable  to  analyse  what  kind  of 
regard  for  the  father  entered  into  the  mother's 
love  for  the  child.  Cleopatra  cannot  but 
have  admired  so  astonishing  a  genius  as  Caesar, 
and  she  must  also  have  felt  gratitude  toward 
him,  especially  as  his  bewitchment  by  her  was 
such  a  signal  tribute  to  her  charms.  But  policy 
so  obviously  bound  her  to  him  that  there  is  at 

319 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

least  no  necessity  to  imagine  that  she  reciprocated 
the  passion  which  the  Dictator  felt  for  her. 

In  the  case  of  Antony  we  are  better  provided 
with  evidence.  The  connection  lasted  longer — 
twelve  years  as  compared  with  three — and  the 
classical  writers  felt  no  constraint  in  discussing  it 
with  a  freedom  which  they  avoided  where  Caesar 
was  involved.  They  made  out  of  Antony's  in- 
fatuation a  great  romance,  and  they  were  per- 
fectly right  in  doing  so.  It  was  a  great  romance, 
and  the  more  romantic  for  being  a  true  one. 
Where  we  may  be  permitted  to  differ  from  them 
is  in  not  accepting  the  hypotheses  that  in  the 
affair  the  love  was  entirely  on  one  side,  and  that 
Cleopatra,  having  entered  upon  her  relationship 
with  Anthony  because  she  believed  that  he  was 
the  man  whom  she  must  put  in  the  place  of 
Caesar  as  her  saviour  from  the  menace  of  Rome, 
cared  so  little  for  him  that  she  was  quite  ready 
to  betray  him  to  his  enemies  when  she  saw  that 
he  could  not  save  her.  It  was  to  the  advantage 
of  Octavian  that  matters  should  be  represented 
thus.  Antony,  in  so  far  as  he  was  a  Roman 
and  once  the  brother-in-law  of  Octavian,  must 
be  shown  as  the  victim  of  "  the  Egyptian,"  the 
sufferer  from  her  poisonous  philtres.  And,  inas- 
much as  Octavian  had  endeavoured  to  purchase 
from  her  Antony's  betrayal  with  promises  which 
he  never  meant  to  keep,  she  must  be  shown  as 
offering  to  be  the  traitor  to  one  whom  she  had 
320 


CLEOPATRA   THE   GREAT 

from  the  first  only  deluded  with  a  pretence  of 
love.  Octavian  became  Augustus  the  Roman 
Emperor,  and  his  version  of  the  story  was 
naturally  that  which  prevailed. 

We  must  admit  that  Cleopatra  was  attracted  to 
Antony  and  determined  to  attach  him  to  her  be- 
cause she  saw  in  him  the  proper  partner  in  the 
scheme,  which  Caesar's  murder  had  temporarily 
ruined,  of  preserving  Egypt  from  the  grasp  of 
Rome.  This  is  no  reason,  however,  for  supposing 
that  he  who  inspired  a  lasting  affection  in  two  such 
dissimilar  women  as  Fulvia  and  Octavia  should  ' 
have  been  incapable  of  arousing  a  passion  in 
Cleopatra  also.  Had  Antony  been  successful 
at  Actium  and  (were  it  conceivable)  become 
Emperor  of  the  world  known  to  the  Romans, 
we  should  no  doubt  read  of  Cleopatra  as  his 
faithful  and  loving  wife.  That  she  was  faithful 
to  him  in  defeat  ought  to  be  a  better  proof  of 
her  love.  And  was  she  not  faithful  ?  Her  death  • 
should  testify  to  this.  She  did  not  die  with  him, 
it  is  true.  She  did  not  even  kill  herself  in  the 
tomb  before  she  was  captured,  being  stopped 
by  Proculeius.  She  waited  some  days  before 
having  recourse  to  the  famous  asp.  But  she  was 
a  mother  and  loved  her  children,  for  whom  she  ^ 
hoped  to  secure  terms  from  the  conqueror.  When 
she  failed  to  extract  any  terms,  she  put  an  end 
to  her  life,  having  first  done  honour  to  the  coffin  . 
of  Antony.     And  Octavian  had  her  buried  with 

321  n 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

her  lover,  not  unmoved,  it  would  seem,  by  the 
pathos  of  their  deaths. 

But  Antony  accused  her  of  treachery  to  him — 
when  he  was  so  incapable  of  judging  aright  that 
he  seems  a  totally  different  man  from  the  Antony 
who  attempted  to  take  up  Caesar's  inheritance. 
The  wild  utterances  prompted  by  a  diseased  brain 
surely  do  not  deserve  serious  attention.  Cleopatra 
had  indeed  betrayed  him,  but  not  with  the  petty 
treachery  which  would  sell  a  broken  and  ruined 
man  to  a  foe  who  was  in  any  case  certain  to 
capture  him  alive  or  dead.  She  had  betrayed 
Antony  the  Roman  when  she  made  him  enter 
into  her  project  of  saving  and  aggrandising  Egypt 
at  the  expense  of  Rome.  She  betrayed  him  because 
she  was  a  bold  stateswoman  and  he  a  soldier  of 
fortune  whose  ability  to  cut  himself  off  from 
his  early  associations  she  had  overrated.  When 
she  saw  on  the  arrival  of  the  Roman  senators  at 
Ephesus  that  his  country  still  had  a  powerful  hold 
over  him,  she  recognised  that  her  schemes  were 
threatened  with  disaster.  The  outcome  of  her 
reflections  on  this  desperate  position  was  the  plan 
which  there  was  an  attempt  to  carry  out  at 
Actium.  The  escape  from  Actium  must  have 
seemed  to  Cleopatra  the  only  means  by  which 
she  might  keep  both  Egypt  and  Antony  for  her- 
self. The  plan  was  a  bad  one,  as  it  was  bound 
to  be,  being  a  solution  of  an  impossible  problem. 
But  at  any  rate  we  find  no  sign  that  she  tried 

322 


CLEOPATRA   THE   GREAT 

to  sell  Antony  in  ofder  to  buy  off  the  punishment 
for  her  mistakes.  She  returned  with  him  to 
Egypt  and  there  with  him  waited  to  see  what  » 
fate  would  bring.  When  all  his  forces  failed  him,  • 
she  followed  him  to  the  grave.  If  we  hold  that 
she  had  no  love  for  him,  can  we  suggest  what 
other  course  she  should  have  taken,  had  she 
loved  him  ? 

Cleopatra  has  sometimes  been  compared  with 
a  tigress.  The  comparison  is  not  without  its 
aptness.  And  no  one  denies  that  tigresses  have 
the  capacity  for  love  of  their  mates. 

A  tigress,  too,  is  said  to  be  ready  to  fight  to 
the  last  on  behalf  of  her  cubs.  Cleopatra  dis- 
played no  quality  which  arouses  our  sympathy 
more  than  her  maternal  love.  We  cannot 
pretend  to  know  how  she  brought  up  her  children, 
but  we  have  the  witness  of  writers  very  hostile 
to  her  that  she  exhibited  always  the  greatest 
solicitude,  first  for  Caesarion  alone,  and  then 
for  him  and  her  two  sons  and  daughter  by 
Antony,  that  Egypt  should  be  preserved  as  their 
inheritance.  After  Caesar's  assassination  and 
her  return  to  Alexandria  her  anxiety  was 
that  both  Egypt  and  Rome  should  recognise 
Caesarion  as  her  associate  on  the  throne  of  the 
Ptolemies.  She  persuaded  Egypt  by  such  devices 
as  those  whose  record  was  placed  on  the  walls 
of  the  temple  at  Erment.  Rome's  consent 
she  bought,  it  would  appear,  in  return  for  the 

323  II* 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

assistance  which  she  tried  to  give  to  Dolabella. 
When  she  obtained  her  ascendancy  over  Antony 
she  had  no  difficulty  in  procuring  from  him  most 
generous  treatment  for  Caesarion  as  well  as  for 
the  children  whom  she  bore  to  himself.  And 
at  the  end  we  see  her  desperately  struggling  to 
save  her  young  family  from  the  fate  threatened 
them  at  the  hands  of  Octavian,  bargaining  with 
»  him  at  the  risk  of  being  denounced  to  Antony 
as  willing  to  sacrifice  him,  and  enduring  her  own 
life  as  long  as  she  entertained  any  hopes  of  a 
compromise.  Judged  from  the  standpoint  of 
a  mother,  Cleopatra  does  not  deserve  to  be  ranked 
among  the  bad  women  of  history.  There  is 
some  satisfaction  in  thinking  she  did  not  live  to 
see  the  cruel  end  of  her  beloved  Caesarion. 

The  case  is  very  difficult  when  we  look  at  her 
relations  with  her  brothers  and  sister.  The 
traditions  of  Oriental^despotism  were  not  violated 
by  the  Lagidae,  and  tHe  custom  of  brother-and- 
sister  marriage  very  often  introduced  an  addi- 
tional horror.  The  union  of  Ptolemy  Phila- 
delphos  with  Arsinoe  II  was  followed  by  good 
results,  but  usually  the  "  divine  marriage  "  led 
to  unhappiness.  Cleopatra's  wedding  of  her 
two  brothers,  although  owing  to  the  youth  of 
both  boys,  even  at  the  time  of  their  deaths,  the 
transaction  was  possibly  formal,  turned  out  very 
ill.  With  Ptolemy  XIV  she  was  soon  on  terms 
of  bitter  enmity,  while  the  mystery  of  the   dis- 

324 


CLEOPATRA   THE   GREAT 

appearance  of  Ptolemy  XV  reflects  grave 
suspicions  upon  her.  With  regard  to  her  sister 
Arsinoe,  there  is  no  doubt  whatever  that  Cleo- 
patra dealt  with  her  ferociously,  and  well  merited 
the  title  of  her  murderess.  Both  the  Ptolemies 
and  Arsinoe  only  appeared  to  Cleopatra  in  the 
light  of  obstacles  to  her  enjoyment  of  power,  and 
like  so  many  a  Sultan  and  Sultana  she  can  be 
credited  with  no  scruples  where  a  rival  of  her 
own  blood  was  concerned. 

Cleopatra  exhibited,  in  fact,  all  the  cruelty 
which  accompanies  great  craft  in  rulers,  Western 
as  well  as  Eastern.  When  we  have  the  certainty 
of  her  behaviour  toward  Arsinoe  and  toward 
Artavasdes,  King  of  Armenia,  we  need  not 
trouble  to  ask  whether  the  tale  of  her  experiments 
into  the  action  of  poisons  on  the  persons  of 
condemned  criminals  at  Alexandria  is  true. 
The  dislike  which  the  Alexandrians  so  frequently 
manifested  of  her  was  no  doubt  inspired  by  such 
ruthlessness  as  she  showed  after  her  return  from 
Actium.  They  were  a  troublesome  people,  and 
she  ruled  them  as  the  most  tyrannical  of  her 
predecessors  had  ruled  them  before  her,  that  is 
by  terrorism,  mitigated  only  by  the  display  of 
a  gorgeous  pomp  which  kept  in  a  good  humour 
those  on  whom  her  wrath  did  not  fall.  To  show 
a  sign  of  hesitation  might  have  given  her  Alex- 
andrian subjects  the  idea  that  she  feared  them  ; 
and,  to  do  her  justice,  it  must  be  admitted  that 

325  lit 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

she  was  singularly  devoid  of  fear.  The  only 
lack  of  courage  with  which  she  can  be  charged 
was  during  the  campaign  of  Actium.  She  is 
alleged  to  have  been  dispirited  by  a  series  of 
bad  omens  before  the  fighting  began,  and  to  have 
been  a  victim  of  fright  in  the  battle  itself.  As 
for  omens,  she  had  good  reason  to  be  discouraged 
by  what  occurred  when  Antony  set  up  his  head- 
quari:ers  in  Asia  Minor  in  30  B.C.,  for  by  the 
arrival  at  Ephesus  of  Antony's  Roman  supporters, 
and  their  attempt  to  drive  her  away  from  the  man 
whom  they  hailed  as  deliverer  of  the  Republic, 
all  her  ambitions  were  threatened  with  absolute 
ruin.  With  regard  to  the  sea-fight,  while  the 
supposition  of  a  sudden  panic  on  the  part  of 
Cleopatra  fits  in  best  with  the  ascertainable 
facts,  there  are  points  on  which,  could  we  be 
enlightened,  we  should  be  in  a  better  position 
to  judge.  We  do  not  even  know,  for  instance, 
whether  Cleopatra  was  a  good  sailor  !  We  hear 
of  her  being  prostrated  by  rough  weather  when 
she  set  saU  from  Alexandria  to  the  assistance  of 
Dolabella  in  Syria.  At  any  rate,  she  quickly 
regained  her  courage  after  the  flight  from  Actium. 
During  the  last  months  in  Egypt,  of  all  her  party 
and  Antony's  she  best  played  the  man,  down  to 
that  day  when,  in  the  words  of  her  very  grudging 
critic  Florus,  "  free  from  all  womanly  fear  she 
yielded  up  her  last  breath." 

The    almost    complete    absence    of    Egyptian 
326 


CLEOPATRA   THE    GREAT 

records  concerning  Cleopatra's  reign  is  for  no 
reason  more  to  be  regretted  than  because  without 
them  we  cannot  with  any  certainty  estimate  in 
what  Hght  she  appeared  to  the  mass  of  her  sub- 
jects. With  the  Alexandrians,  we  know,  she 
was  unpopular.  But  we  hear  of  no  native 
risings  against  her  authority.  The  inclination 
of  the  Egyptians  to  revolt  against  their  Mace- 
donian rulers  had  no  doubt  been  checked  by  the 
merciless  suppression  of  the  Theban  rebellion 
by  Ptolemy  Lathyros  in  67  B.C.,  when  he  razed 
to  the  ground  Thebes,  the  old  Pharaohs'  "  Hori- 
zon on  Earth,  the  Eye  of  the  Universal  Lord," 
and  scattered  its  inhabitants  among  villages. 
Yet  there  was  a  rebellion  in  the  South,  in  the 
nomes  of  the  Said,  in  the  early  days  of  the 
Roman  occupation  of  Egypt,  which  Strabo 
attributes  to  discontent  at  the  heavy  taxation. 
Under  Cleopatra,  as  under  her  father  Auletes, 
taxation  was  very  heavy ;  but  there  were  no 
risings  known  to  us  against  either  Auletes  or 
Cleopatra.  Father  and  daughter  seem  to  have 
acted  alike  in  their  home  policy.  While  their 
exactions  of  money  to  fill  the  royal  purse  were 
grievous,  they  left  the  provincials  otherwise  very 
much  to  themselves,  under  the  administration  of 
the  local  officials,*  and  they  provided  for  the 

•In  this  connection  see  Dr.  Mahaffy's  "History  of  Egypt,"  pp. 
244-6,  where  he  translates  and  comments  on  the  priestly  stele  of 
Thebes,  showing  the  great  importance  assumed  by  a  provincial 
official  early  in  the  joint  reign  ol  Cleopatra  and  Caesarion. 

327 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

worship  of  the  native  gods.  Auletes  and  Cleo- 
patra were  both  temple-builders,  as  has  already 
been  said,  and  evidence  of  their  wise  attempts 
to  keep  a  hold  over  the  Egyptians  by  a  pious 
expenditure  of  some  of  the  money  ground  out 
of  them  remains  to  this  day. 

Unhappily  the  most  important  new  work  of 
Cleopatra's  reign  exists  no  more.  The  temple  she 
erected  at  Hermonthis,  a  mammisi  or  "  birth- 
house  "  dedicated  to  Isis,  mother  of  Horus,  in 
commemoration  of  her  own  bringing-forth  of 
Caesarion,  suffered  the  fate  described  in  an 
earlier  chapter,  and  is  represented  only  by  a 
few  stones  at  the  modern  Erment.  We  can  no 
longer  see,  therefore,  the  actual  reliefs  repre- 
senting in  so  curious  a  way  the  priestly  story  of 
the  parentage  of  Cleopatra's  firstborn,  nor  the 
picture  of  Cleopatra  herself  adoring  the  sacred 
bull  of  Hermonthis,  which  was  identified  with 
the  god  Mentu.  A  similar  fate  has  befallen  her 
buildings  at  Koptos.  At  Dendera,  the  ancient 
Tentyra,  the  great  temple  of  Hathor  fortunately 
remains,  one  of  the  most  magnificent  and  most 
perfectly  preserved  examples  of  Egyptian  archi- 
tecture, having  even  its  roof  over  it.  Cleopatra 
probably  had  little  to  do  with  the  building  of  the 
temple,  to  which  her  father  had  added  some 
crypts  ;  but  her  decorations  are  much  in  evidence 
on  its  walls.  One  of  the  most  striking  of  these 
is  a  relief,   on  the  outer  wall,   of  herself  and 

328 


CLEOPATRA   THE   GREAT 

Caesarion  offering  worship  and  incense  to  Isis 
and  to  Horns.  Within  this  temple  is  a  small 
chapel  at  the  west  end,  in  which  Cleopatra  may 
have  stood  on  a  few  solemn  occasions  in  her 
reign.  It  is  the  "  Dwelling  of  Hathor,"  the 
innermost  shrine  of  the  goddess  whom  the  Greeks 
identified  with  Aphrodite,  in  which  was  kept  her 
golden  sistrum,  and  to  which  only  the  sovereign 
might  be  admitted. 

In  the  reliefs  Cleopatra  appears  with  the  head- 
dresses of  both  Hathor  and  Isis,  who  blended  to 
a  large  extent  in  the  legends  of  Horns,  son  of  the 
Great  Mother.  With  Cleopatra's  identification 
with  Isis  we  are  already  familiar.  It  was  a 
common  role  for  the  queens  of  the  Lagid  house 
to  adopt,  it  would  appear  ;  and  the  ambitious 
and  utterly  unscrupulous  Cleopatra  III  to  some 
extent  anticipated  her  namesake's  assumption 
of  the  epithet  Nea  Isis  by  calling  herself  Nike- 
phoros  ("  Bringer  of  Victory  ")  and  Dikaiosyne 
("  Justice  "),  both  of  them  titles  of  Isis. 

Plutarch,  when  he  writes  of  the  Alexandrian 
triumph,  says  that  "  Cleopatra  now,  as  on  other 
occasions  when  she  went  out  publicly,  wore  the 
dress  sacred  to  Isis,  different  from  her  ordinary 
dress,  and  she  was  called  the  New  Isis,"  the 
natural  inference  from  which  would  be  that  she 
encouraged  the  cult  of  herself  as  Isis  from  this 
time.  Coins  of  an  earlier  date,  however,  show 
her  already  with  the  attributes  of  the  goddess. 

329 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

It  is  difficult  to  say  what  was  the  precise  import 
of  this  identification  with  Isis,  which  was  paralleled 
among  the  male  Lagidae  by  the  fourth  and 
thirteenth  Ptolemies  calling  themselves  Dionysos 
— as  did  Antony  when  he  began  to  become 
Egyptianised.*  The  ruling  sovereign  of  Egypt 
was  by  reason  of  his  or  her  office  divine  ;  but  it 
must  have  pleased  her  subjects  to  see  Cleopatra 
equate  herself  with  the  "  great  mother  of  the 
gods,"  wearing  the  plain  straight  skirt  and  the 
monstrous  head-dress  of  the  goddess,  or  she  would 
hardly  have  ventured  to  do  so.  Not  untU  her 
last  desperate  days  do  we  hear  of  her  flouting 
the  religious  susceptibilities  of  Egypt  ;  and  even 
then  we  do  not  know  that  she  may  not  be  maligned 
by  Dion  when  he  makes  her  rob  the  temples  of 
their  treasures,  "  not  sparing  even  the  holiest 
shrines."  For  the  bulk  of  her  reign  at  least, 
we  see  her  careful  to  keep  on  her  side  the  hearts 
of  the  devout. 

Taken  as  a  whole,  Cleopatra's  domestic  policy 
in  Eg^'pt,  though  financially  burdensome,  does 
not  seem  to  have  been  otherwise  oppressive,  like 
that  of  many  of  her  predecessors.  Outside 
Alexandria  complaint  against  her  did  not  become 
fierce.  Where  she  ruined  her  country  was  with 
her  foreign  policy.     But,  on  the  other  hand,  it 

•  Antony's  assumption  and  acceptance  of  the  r61e  of  a 
Ptolemy  were  rendered  easier  for  him  by  his  connection  with 
both  Dionysos  and  Herakles,  both  claimed  by  the  Lagidae 
as  their  divine  ancestors. 


CLEOPATRA   THE    GREAT 

might  be  said  that  by  this  same  foreign  policy 
she  gave  Egypt  at  least  seventeen  years  more  of 
independent  existence  than  there  was  any  reason 
to  hope  for  when  Julius  Caesar  set  foot  in  Alex- 
andria. Dealing  with  only  Ptolemy  XIV,  Pothei- 
nos,  and  Achillas,  Caesar  would  hardly  have 
left  Egypt  in  B.C.  47  a  self-governing  state. 
Such  it  still  was,  however,  imtil  the  middle  of 
the  year  30,  thanks  to  the  influence  of  Cleopatra 
first  over  Caesar  and  then  over  Antony. 

Cleopatra  died  a  failure.  She  failed  because, 
as  has  been  pointed  out  above,  the  problem  which 
she  attempted  to  solve  was  incapable  of  solution. 
She  had  been  seeking  how,  with  the  aid  of  a  man 
who  could  not  forget  that  he  was  a  Roman,  she 
might  build  up  Egypt  into  an  empire  strong 
enough  to  resist  the  encroachments  of  Rome. 
Herself  an  Orientalised  Greek,  queen  of  a  nation 
mostly  alien  to  her  in  blood,  she  did  not  realise 
the  power  of  the  name  of  Rome  over  even  the 
most  lawless  of  her  offspring.  Antony  only 
threw  off  his  Roman  citizenship  in  the  madness 
of  Actium,  where  he  lost  his  manhood  too. 
Already  grown  helpless  to  think  for  himself,  he 
became  unfit  to  supply  the  force  to  be  guided  by 
Cleopatra's  brain,  and  so  left  her  kingdom, 
which  she  had  made  also  his,  an  easy  prey  to 
Octavian. 

But  if  Cleopatra  failed,  yet  for  a  while,  between 
Tarentum  and  Actium,  she  came  very  near  to 

331 


CLEOPATRA  OF  EGYPT 

success.  And  in  any  case,  whether  her  ambitions 
were  frustrated  because  she  chose  her  instrument 
unwisely  or  because  there  was  no  instrument 
capable  of  doing  the  work  which  she  required  of 
it,  there  were  in  her  scheme  a  breadth  and  a 
magnificence  which  make  it  impossible  for  us  to 
be  blind  to  her  line  statecraft  or  to  deny  her 
right  to  the  traditional  title  of  Cleopatra  the 
Great. 


THE   END 


332 


APPENDIX  A 
GENEALOGY  OF  CLEOPATRA  THE  GREAT 


Ptolemy  I  Soter  =  (i)  Eurydike 
(son  of  Lagos)      (widowed  d.  of 

Antipater  of  Macedon) 


(2)  Berenike  I 

(grandniece  of  Antipater 

of  Macedon) 


Ptolemy  II  Philadelphos    =^  Arsinoe  I 

i     (d.  of  Lysimachos  of  Thrace) 


Ptolemy  III  Euergetes       =r 


Berenike  II 

(g.d.  of  Eurydike  by  her 

first  husband) 


Ptolemy  IV  Philopator 


Arsinoe  III 


Ptolemy  V  Epiphanes        —  Cleopatra  I  of  Syria 

I    (dau.  of  Antiochos  the  Great) 


Ptolemy  VII  Philometor— Cleopatra  II 

I 
Cleopatra  III  =f  Ptolemy  IX  (Physkon) 


Ptolemy  X  Soter  II  (Lathyros) 
who  had  an  illegitimate  son 

I 
Ptolemy  XIII  (Auletes) 


Cleopatra  V 
Tryphaena 


Berenike 
IV 


Cleopatra  VI 
the  Great 


Arsinoe 
IV 


Ptolemy 
XIV 


Ptolemy 
XV 


Note. — The  members  of  the  Lagid  family  not  directly  concerned 
in  the  descent  are  omitted  from  the  above  table. 

Ptolemy  I  was  reputed  to  be  the  son  of  Philip  Amyntas,  King  of 
Macedon,  but  himself  recognised  as  his  father  Lagos,  who  was  the 
husband  of  Arsinoe,  a  relative  of  the  King. 

The  four  younger  children  of  Ptolemy  XIII  are,  by  some  assigned 
to  another  wife  than  Cleopatra  V.  Some  give  him  an  eldest 
daughter,  Cleopatra  VI  Tryphaena,  full  sLster  of  Berenike  IV. 
(See  Appendix  B.) 

333 


APPENDIX  B 

THE   FAMILY  OF  PTOLEMY   AULETES 

On  the  subject  of  Cleopatra's  parentage  M.  Bouche- 
Leclercq  writes  ("  Histoire  des  Lagides,"  II.  p.  415 
note)  :  "  We  have  before  us  a  tangle  of  problems  for 
which  no  solution  can  be  found  save  in  conjectures, 
none  of  which  are  in  accordance  with  all  the  texts. 
We  know  for  certain  of  five  children  of  Ptolemy 
Auletes :  three  daughters,  Berenike  {ob.  55  B.C.), 
the  celebrated  Cleopatra  (ob.  30),  Arsinoe  {ob.  41), 
and  two  sons,  Ptolemy  XIV  {ob.  47)  and  Ptolemy  XV 
{ob.  44).  Porphyry  ("  Fr.  Hist.  Gr.,"  III.  p.  723) 
alone  mentions  an  older  daughter,  called  Cleopatra 
Tryphaena  like  her  mother,  reigning  conjointly  with 
her  sister  Berenike  in  58  and  dying  soon  afterwards. 
Strabo  (XVII.  p.  796)  says  that  when  Ptolemy  had 
been  '  expelled  '  the  Alexandrians  put  on  the  throne 
the  eldest  of  his  three  daughters,  '  the  only  legitimate 
one.'  He  is  evidently  thinking  of  Berenike,  and 
Dion  Cassius  also  knows  of  no  other  queen  beside 
Berenike  during  the  interregnum  58-55.  Neither 
Strabo  nor  Dion  nor  Porphyry  mentions  the  queen- 
mother,  who  accordingly  is  assumed  to  have  died, 
and  to  have  died  early  enough  for  Ptolemy  to  have 
become  after  her  death  father  of  four  bastards,  as 
Strabo  implicitly  calls  them.  Except  for  Lepsius 
and  Wilcken,  all  authorities,  from  Vaillant  to  Strack, 
are  agreed  that  the  queen-mother  Cleopatra  Try- 
phaena died  before  58,  and  they  quote  as  a  proof 

334 


APPENDIX  B 

the  fact  (arbitrarily  assigned  to  the  year  63)  that  the 
two  Ptolemies  were  betrothed  to  the  daughters  of 
Mithridates.  Strack  even  assigns  Cleopatra's  death 
to  the  end  of  69,  because  after  that  date  the  queen's 
name  appears  no  more  in  inscriptions  and  public 
deeds.  Consequently  those  who  do  not  wish  to 
reject  either  Strabo  or  Porphyry  make  the  Cleopatra 
Tryphaena  who  was  put  on  the  throne  in  58  with 
Berenike — or,  rather,  before  her  {v.  Strack,  p.  68) 
— an  older  daughter,  bearing  her  mother's  name,  and 
the  four  other  children  born  to  the  widowed  Ptolemy 
all  '  bastards.'  But  how  can  we  suppose  that  during 
the  struggle  preceding  the  annexation  of  Egypt, 
47-30  B.C.,  the  Romans,  tempted  as  they  were  to 
sweep  away  the  last  of  the  dynasty,  never  thought 
of  declaring  Cleopatra  Philopator  and  her  two 
brothers  bastards  and  children  of  bastards  ?  And 
would  the  Ptolemy  Nothus,  whose  illegitimacy  cost 
him  so  dear,  have  put  his  successors  in  the  same 
situation  as  himself  ?  .  .  .  There  remains  Strack's 
triumphant  objection,  that  the  name  of  the  Queen 
Cleopatra,  the  Goddess  Philapator  Philadelphos, 
disappears  from  the  monuments  and  the  dates  on  the 
papyri  after  69.  This  is  but  negative  evidence, 
which  may  be  upset  to-morrow  by  the  discovery  of 
evidence  to  the  contrary  effect,  and  which  may,  as 
Strack  himself  admits,  be  capable  of  another  explana- 
tion. Moreover,  the  evidence  is  not  complete. 
Strack  (p.  210,  p.  43)  is  obliged  to  declare  incorrect 
an  inscription  dated  December  5th,  57  B.C.,  which 
speaks  of  the  completion  of  the  pylons  of  the  temple 
of  Edfu  by  Ptolemy  Neos  Dionysos  and  his  sister- 
wife.  Queen  Cleopatra  Tryphaena.  The  inscription 
may  be  incorrect  ;  but,  while  the  error  is  a  small  one 

335 


APPENDIX  B 

if  Cleopatra  did  not  die  until  58,  it  becomes  very 
great  if  she  died  eleven  years  previously.  It  is 
probable  that  outside  Alexandria  Ptolemy  continued 
to  be  looked  on  as  reigning  monarch,  and  that  it  was 
not  known  at  Edfu  in  December  57  that  the  queen- 
mother  was  dead,  news  from  Alexandria  being 
lacking  or  disbelieved.  A  prolongation  of  the  queen- 
mother's  existence  to  the  year  57  solves  all  problems 
at  once,  without  removing  from  the  texts  anything 
except  their  contradictions." 

Doctor  J.  P.  Mahaffy,  who  has  done  so  much  to 
bring  the  history  of  the  Ptolemies  before  English 
readers,  expresses  himself  doubtfully  on  the  subject 
of  the  identity  of  the  Cleopatra  Tryphaena  of  58 
in  his  "  History  of  Egypt  under  the  Ptolemaic  Dy- 
nasty "  (p.  229),  but  speaks  without  doubt  of  "  a 
young  family  by  another  wife,  of  whom  the  eldest 
became  afterwards  the  famous  Queen  of  Egypt." 
Dr.  E.  A.  WaUis  Budge  ("  History  of  Egypt,"  VIII. 
p.  79)  holds  that  "  Cleopatra  V  Tryphaena  probably 
died  about  69  or  68  "  ;  that  she  had  two  daughters, 
Cleopatra  VI  Tryphaena  and  Berenike  IV ;  and 
that  the  four  children,  Cleopatra  VII  (as  she  now 
becomes),  Arsinoe  IV,  Ptolemy  XIV,  and  Ptolemy 
XV,  were  by  a  second  wife. 


336 


PRINCIPAL  DATES  IN  CLEOPATRA'S  UFE 

B.C. 

Cleopatra's   birth  .  .  .  .  .         69  or  68* 

Ptolemy  Auletes  recognised  as  king  by  Rome  (Caesar  cos.)     59 

,,  ,,       driven  into  exile.  .  .  .  .58 

„       restored  by  Gabinius  .  .  .  -55 

Death    of    Auletes    and    accession    of    Cleopatra    and 

Ptolemy  XIV 51 

Cnaeus  Pompeius,  junico',  visits  Egypt.  .  .  -49 

Cleopatra  driven  out  by  her  brother  .  ?  Autumn,  48 
Murder  of  Pompey  near  Pelusium.  .  .     Sept,  29,     48 

Arrival  of  Julius  Caesar  in  Alexandria.  .         October,     48 

Death  of  Ptolemy  XIV       .  .  .     March   (O.S.)     47 

Departure  of  Caesar,  leaving  Cleopatra  and  Ptolemy  XV 

associated  on  the  throne  June  (O.S.=March\ 

or  April),      I     ^^ 
Birth  of  Ptolemy  Caesarion.  .  .  .         June,     47 

Cleopatra  visits  Rome         .  .  ,  .     Summer,     45 

Murder  of  Caesar  ....         March  15,     44 

Death  of  Ptolemy  XV ?     44 

Return  of  Cleopatra  to  Egypt     .  .  .         April,     44 

Cleopatra  associates  Caesarion  with  her  on  the  throne  ?  43 
Meeting  of  Cleopatra  and  Antony  at  Tarsus  .  Autumn,  41 
Antony  leaves  Cleopatra  after  wintering   at  Alexandria 

with  her     ......         Spring,     40 

Birth  of  Cleopatra's  twin  children,  Alexander  and  Selene    40 
Antony  rejoins  Cleopatra  at  An tioch   .  .         Autumn,     37 

Birth  of  Cleopatra's  fourth  child,  Ptolemy  (Philadelphos)     36 
The  triumph  and  donations  of  Alexandria     .  .  -34 

Antony  and  Cleopatra  winter  in  Greece.  .  .         32-3 1 

The  battle  of  Actium     .....     Sept.  2,     31 

Fall  of  Alexandria  and  death  of  Antony.  .       Aug.  1,     30 

Death   of  Cleopatra  .....       August,     30 

•  According  to  Stiack,  *'  Die  Dynastie  der  Ptolemter,"  she  was  bom  in  the 
wiater  of  69.     But  see  p.  376  with  regard  to  the  month  of  her  birthday. 


337 


LIST  OF  CHIEF  MODERN  AUTHORITIES  CONSULTED 

Bouch6-Leclercq,  A. — "  Histoire  des  Lagides." 

Budge,  A.  E.  Wallis — "  History  of  Egypt,"  etc. 

Buttles,  Janet  R. — "  The  Queens  of  Egypt." 

Ermann,  A. — "  Life  in  Ancient  Egypt." 

Ferrero,  G. — "  Greatness  and  Decline  of  Rome  "  ("  Grandezza 
e  Decadenza  di  Roma  ").* 

Gayet,  A. — "  La  Civilisation  Pharaonique." 

Houssaye,  H. — "  Aspasie — C16opatre — Thdodora." 

Mahaffy,  J.  P. — "  Empire  of  the  Ptolemies." 

,,         ,,         — "History   of   Egypt   under   the   Ptolemaic 
Dynasty." 

Maspero,  G. — "  New  Light  on  Ancient  Egypt,"  etc. 

Mommsen,  T. — "  History  of  Rome." 

Moret,  A. — "  Du  Caractdre  Religieux  de  la  Royaute  Phar- 
aonique." 

Petrie,  W.  M.  Flinders — "  Religion  of  Ancient  Egypt." 

Poole,   R.   S. — "  Catalogue  of  Greek  Coins  in    the    British 
Museum." 

Shjirpe,  S. — "  History  of  Egypt." 

Steindorf,  G. — "  Religion  of  the  Ancient  Egjrptians." 

Baedeker's  and  Murray's  "  Guides  to  Egypt." 

ANCIENT  AUTHORITIES 
ARRANGED  ACCORDING  TO  DATE 

FIRST   CENTURY   B.C. 

Cicero  ;   Julius  Caesar  ;  Author  of  "  De  Bello  Alexandrine  "  ; 
Strabo  ;   Diodorus  Siculus  ;   Livy. 

FIRST   CENTURY   A.D. 

Velleius  Paterculus  ;  Seneca  ;  Lucan  ;  Josephus  ;  Plutarch  ;\ 
Pliny  the  Younger  ;    Dion  Chrysostom  ;    Tacitus. 

SECOND    CENTURY    A.D. 

Appian  ;    Florus  ;    Suetonius  ;    Lucian  ;    Dion  Cassius. 
THIRD  CENTURY  A.D.     Athcnacus ;  Porphyry. 

FIFTH    CENTURY    A.D.      OrOsiuS. 
ELEVENTH    CENTURY   A.D.      Xiphilin. 

TWELFTH  CENTURY  A.D.     Zonaras. 

'  The  references  to  this  are  according  to  the  pages  of  the  English  edition 
recently  issued  ;  but  the  translations  are  mostly  made  from  the  Freoch  version, 
which  was  available  earlier. 

t  In  the  case  of  Plutarch  frequent  use  h.as  been  made  of  the  translation  of 
Mr.  G.  Long  (Bohn's  Standard  Library,  Messrs.  G.  Bell  &  Sons),  with  some 
modifications  aJfter  reference  to  the  original. 


INDEX   OF  PROPER  NAMES   AND 
PLACES 


Achillas,  Egyptian  general — 54,  59, 
60,  67,  73  e-,  98 

Achilles  Tatius — 117 

Actium — 239,  348  §. 

Agrippa,  M.  Vipsanius — 234-3,  34' 1 
243,  245,  252-3.  271 

Ahenobarbus,  Cn.  Domitius — 172, 
177, 196, 217, 220-2, 244-5 

Abmes,  Queen  of  Egypt — 31 1 

Alexander  the  Great — 10,  48,  51,  iii, 
X13,  118,  121 

Alexander  Helios,  elder  son  of 
Cleopatra  and  Antony — 181,  188, 
201-2, 290, 303, 304  n, 

Alexandria — no  ff.;  architecture 
and  planning  of,  114  ff.,  138  ; 
remains  of  ancient,  118  n. ;  the 
Bnicbeion,  74,  117 ;  Harbour,  74, 
116-7  ;  Library,  76-7,  "8,  120; 
Pharos,  77, 111,116;  Heptastadion, 
77,  117;  Rhakotis,  no,  113,  1x9  ; 
Royal  Palace,  117,  138  ;  Museum, 
118;  Gymnasium,  118;  temples, 
Z19,  120  ;  Timonium,  368  ;  popu- 
lation, 66,  III ;  mixture  of  races 
in,  66,  1 1 1-3;  character  of  citi- 
zens, 34,  80,  III  ^.,  163  ;  super- 
stition, X13, 119  ;  cleavage  between 
the  city  and  Egypt,  xio;  not  a 
Greek  polis,  114  ;  citixens'  hos- 
tility toward  Ptolemy  Auletes,  17, 
20,  37 ;  toward  Cleopatra,  33-3, 
263,  333 ;  household  troops  in, 
37  ;  the  siege  of,  63  g. ;  com- 
pared with  Peking  Legation  siege, 
74 


"  Alexandrian  War,"  Author  of — 
40,  68,  76,  80-4,  86 

Allien  us — 137-8 

Amcnothes  III.  of  Egypt — 94 

Ammonios,  agent  of  Ptolemy  Au- 
letes— 26 

Amyntas  of  Galatia — 240,  244 

Ancyra — 234 

Antigonus  of  Judaea — 189 

Antioch — 183  g. 

Antiochi — 15,  33.  See  also  Seleu- 
kidae 

Antiochus  the  Great — 48 

Antiocbus  of  Commagene— 178 

Autipater,  father  of  Herod  the 
Great — 33,85 

Antonia,  cousin  and  second  wife  of 
Antony — 137,  X39 

Antonia  major,  elder  daughter  of 
Antony  and  Octavia — 177,  180, 
303 

Antonia  minor,  younger  daughter  of 
Antony  and  Octavia — x8o,  303 

Antonius,  Caius,  brother  of  Antony 
— X30,  X48 

Antonius,  Lucius,  brother  of  Antony 
— 151  ff.,  165,  X67 

Antony  (Marcxis  Antonius) — ^his  first 
meeting  with  Cleopatra,  9,  xi  ; 
reported  early  fascination  by  her, 
II,  37;  helps  to  restore  Ptolemy 
Auletes,  38,  35-6 ;  mismanage- 
ment of  Rome  in  Caesar's  absence, 
98,  137 ;  possible  meetings  with 
Cleopatra  in  44  d.c,  104  ;  first 
relations     with     Octavian,     137; 


339 


INDEX 


triumvir  with  Octavian  and  Lcpi- 
dus,  130 ;  goes  to  the  East,  132  ; 
his  treatment  of  the  Greeks,  133, 
177 ;  charge  against  Cleopatra, 
131,  147 ;  enmity  with  Cicero, 
135  ;  early  life,  136-8 ;  meeting 
with  Cleopatra  at  Tarsus,  141  ff.  ; 
enslavement  by  Cleopatra,  148, 
150.  317 ;  goes  to  Egypt,  151 ; 
the  "  Inimitable  Life,"  156  ff. ; 
his  fishing,  163 ;  popularity  in 
Alexandria,    163 ;     leaves    Egypt, 

165  ;    last  interview  with  Fulvia, 

166  ;  suggested  alliance  with  Sextus 
Pompeius,  171-2  ;  reconciled  with 
Octavian  at  Brundisium,  174  ; 
marries  Octavia,  175  ;  visits 
Athens  with  her,  177  ;  his  opera- 
tions in  Syria,  178  ;  meets  Octa- 
vian at  Tarentum,  179 ;  parts 
with  Octavia,  180 ;  rejoined  by 
Cleopatra,  i8i ;  the  Antioch 
marriage  question,  185-8,  201  ; 
his  gifts  to  Cleopatra,  185,  188-90  ; 
his  coins,  185-7 ;  first  Parthian 
campaign,  191,  193  ff. ;  returns 
to  Alexandria,  195  ;  responsibility 
for  the  death  of  Sextus  Pompeius, 
197 ;  prepares  for  second  cam- 
paign, 198 ;  receives  overtures 
from  Octavia,  200 ;  his  conquest 
of  Armenia,  202  ;  his  Alexandrian 
triumph,  202  ff.  ;  the  "  donations 
of  Alexandria,"  207-9  J  still  has 
adherents  in  Rome,  214,  230 ; 
vainly  claims  Rome's  recognition 
of  his  acts,  216 ;  winters  at 
Ephcsus  with  Cleopatra,  219  ; 
repudiates  Octavia,  226  ;  his  will, 
228 ;  Octavian's  accusations 
against,  229 ;  stripped  of  his 
authority  by  Rome,  235  •  sur- 
prised by  Octavian's  landing  in 
Greece,  239  ;  his  forces  at  Actium, 
•40 ;      suspicious     against     Cleo- 


patra, 246.  277,  280,  284,  322  ; 
his  intentions  and  conduct  at 
Actium,  240 ;  flight,  254,  257, 
259 ;  attempts  suicide,  263  ; 
returns  to  Alexandria,  265  ;  imi- 
tates Timon,  267 ;  the  "  Die- 
togethers,"  268  ;  negotiations  with 
Octavian,  272  ff. ;  last  struggles, 
279-83  ;  his  defeat,  283  ;  mortally 
wounds  himself,  285  ;  his  death 
in  Cleopatra's  arms,  286-7  ;  buried 
by  Cleopatra,  293  ;  his  character, 
0|  133  ff->  148,  163-4 ;  Fen-ero's 
estimate  of,  134,  155,  175,  185  n., 
187  n.,  194  n.,  232,  262  n. ;  his  looks, 
10,  138 ;  abilities  as  a  general, 
136,  193.  238,  241,  244,  258;  as 
a  cavalry  officer,  35-6,  137,  280 ; 
legendary  descent  from  Hercules, 
10,  138,  188,  256,  330  n. ;  in  the 
character  of  Dionysos,  X33,  145, 
J177.  256,  283,  330 ;  as  a  drinker, 
136,  209  ;  his  debts,  10,  136-7  ; 
taste  for  Greek  life,  137,  162 ; 
dealings  with  women,  138-9,  168  ; 
Fnlvia's  love  for,  139,  168-70, 
321  ;  Octavia's,  139,  177,  321 ; 
Cleopatra's,  139,  320-3 ;  his 
mental  affliction,  209-12,  258,  288, 
33 1  ;  described  by  Florus  and 
Vclleius,  209-10 

Antyllus,  eldest  son  of  Antony — 
160,  170,  180,  225,  268,  274, 
302 

ApoUodoros  the  Sicilian — 69 

Appian— ir  «.,  37.  67,  147,  168, 
307,  elc. 

Archelaos,   general  of   Mithridates — 

33 
Archelaos,  son  of  the  above — 33  ff. 
Arcbelacs,  of  Cappadocia — 240 
Archibios,  friend  of  Cleopatra — 301 
Areios,     Pythagorean    philosopher — 

292-3.  302 
Arsinoe  II.  of  Egypt — 324 


340 


INDEX 


Arsiaoe  IV.,  sister  of  Cleopatra — 
16,  29,  46,  72,  74,  78,  83-4,  88,  98, 
103  n.,  148-9,  188,  296,  325 

Artavasdes  of  Armenia — 193,  198, 
toi,  205-6,  264,  296 

Artavasdes  of  Media — 193,  198,  202, 
215,  264 

Askalon — 312 

Asoka,  King  of  Magadha — ti2 

Atbenaeus — 42  n.,  90, 145, 160 

Alliens — 137,  177,  224,  etc. 

Augustus,  Emperor — See  Octaviaa 

Bassus,  Caecilius — 124,  126 

Bassus,  Ventidius — 177-8,  190 

Berenike  HI.,  daughter  of  Pto- 
lemy X. — 12-14 

Berenike  IV.,  sister  of  Cleopatra — 
29  9:  36,  53.  309 

Bibulus,  Roman  governor  of  Syria 
—55 

Btndusara,  King  of  Magadha — 1 12 

Bogud  of  Mauretania — 240 

Brundtsium — 172-4,  238 

Brutus,  Decimua— 125 

Brutus,  Marcus — 79,  125,  130  jf. 

Caelius  Rufus — 36,  40  n.,  129 
Caesar,  Caius  Julius — early  proposal 
to  send  him  to  Egypt,  20 ;  his 
debts,  ^o-\,  38 ;  bought  by 
Ptolemy  Anletcs,  21  ;  enters 
triimivirate,  28  ;  lends  money  to 
Axiletes,  38,  75  ;  rupture  with 
Pompcy,  56 ;  arrival  in  Alex- 
andria, 64 ;  first  meeting  with 
Cleopatra,  69-71  ;  perilous  posi- 
tion, 65,  80  ;  excuses  for  stay  in 
Alexandria,  66,  68 ;  summons 
Cleopatra  before  him,  67 ;  re- 
ticence oonccniing  Cleopatra,  68, 
73.  30*  ;  Mommsen  on,  70,  88  ; 
bis  conduct  with  women,  70-1, 
}i6 ;  settles  between  Cleopatra 
and     Ptolemy     XIV.,     72 ;      his 


alleged  gift  of  Cyprus,  72,  188  ; 
advice  of  Potheinos  to,  75,  89 ; 
bums  Alexandrian  docks,  76 ; 
question  of  the  Library's  destruc- 
tion, 76-7 ;  seizes  Pharos,  77 ; 
beheads  Potheinos,  78  ;  narrow 
escape  from  death,  8x  ;  releases 
Ptolemy  XIV.,  83  ;  delivered  by 
Mithridatcs  of  Pergamum,  85  ; 
defeats  Egyptian  army,  85  ;  re- 
enters Alexandria,  87 ;  journeys 
up  the  Nile  with  Cleopatra,  90-2  ; 
leaves  Egypt,  93 ;  his  son  by 
Cleopatra,  93  ;  triumphs  in  Rome, 
98 ;  sends  for  Cleopatra,  99 ; 
reported  intention  to  marry  Cleo- 
patra, 102,  317  ;  Parthian  schemes, 
102,  126,  135 ;  murdered,  103  ; 
his  will,  104,  214 
Caesar,    Lucius    Julius,    grandfather 

of  Antony — 137 
Caesarion    (Ptolemy    XVI.    Caesar), 
son  of  Cleopatra  and  Julius  Caesar 
— his  birth  and  parentage,  93-4  ;  the 
"  divine  birth,"  94  ff. ;   his  visit  to 
Rome,  99  ;   recognised  by  Antony, 
104  ;  associated  on  the  throne  •^  ith 
Clcoptatra,  105,  141  ;   called  "  King 
of   Kings "    by   Antony,   207 ;    as 
Julius  Caesar's  heir,  314  ;    Cleopa- 
tra's affection  for,  257,  319,  323  ; 
his  majority  proclaimed,  268  ;  sent 
into  safety  by  Cleopatra,  290  ;  be- 
trayed to  Octavian  and  executed, 
301  ;    sculptured  representation  of, 
329 
Caligula,  Emperor — 304 
Calvinus,  lieutenant  of  Caesar — 89 
Canidius  Crassus — 216,  223,  245,  255, 

262,  266 
Canopus — 116,  122 
Carfulenus,  lieutenant  of  Caesar — 86 
Cassiiis  Longinus,  Caius— 124  S- 
Chamiion,  attendant  on  Cleopatra — 
236,  260,  284,  286,  291,  299 


341 


INDEX 


Cicero,  Marcus  Tullius — 14,  *o,  26,  27, 
aS,  36  n.,  38,  39,  76,  88,  99,  100, 
103,  124,  130,  135,  148,  i58,  169 

Cleopatra  (VI.)  the  Great — ^her  first 
appearance  in  history,  10 ;  her 
family,  29  ff..  Appendix  B  ; 
alleged  illegitimacy,  30 ;  date  of 
birth,  31,  44,  276,  435  ;  her  official 
style,  44 :  lack  of  Egyptian 
records  concerning,  44,  53,  57, 
183,  327  ;  early  life,  45-6  ;  acces. 
sion  to  throne  and  marriage  with 
Ptolemy  XIV.,  52 ;  unpopularity 
in  Alexandria,  52-3,  57,  264  ; 
intrigue  with  .Cnacus  Pompeius, 
56,  310,  316 ;  expelled  from 
EgjTti  57 ;  summoned  before 
Caesar,  67  ;  her  appearance  before 
him,  69-71 ;  besieged  with  him 
in  Alexandria,  74  ff. ;  saved  by 
Caesar's  victory,  88  ;  associated 
with  Ptolemy  XV.,  88  ;  journeys 
up  the  Nile  with  Caesar,  90-2  ; 
bears  a  son  Caesarion,  93  ;  revives 
"  divine  birth "  legend,  94  ff.  ; 
visits  Rome,  97,  99  ;  Cicero's 
opinion  of,  100 ;  excites  Roman 
indignation,  101-3  ;  flight  after 
Caesar's  death,  103  ;  possible 
early  hopes  of  Antony,  104  ;  the 
mystery  of  Ptolemy  XV.,  104-5  ; 
association  with  Caesarion,  105, 
141  ;  troubled  rule  in  44  B.C., 
124  ff. ;  assists  Dolabella,  128  ; 
threatened  by  Cassius,  130  ;  atti- 
tude toward  the  triumvirs,  131 , 
147 ;  interview  with  Antony  at 
Tarsus,  141  ff.  ;  procures  murder 
of  Arsinoe,  149  ;  returns  to  Egypt 
with  Antony,  151  ;  the  "  Inimit- 
able Life"  at  Alexandria,  156 ff.  ; 
her  famous  wager,  161  ;  separation 
from  Antony,  170,  175,  181  ; 
relations  renewed,  181  ;  bears 
twins  to  him,  181  ;    meeting  with 


Herod,  183  ;  attitude  to  Sextus 
Pompeius,  184,  197 ;  the  Antioch 
marriage  question,  185-8,  201  n. ; 
her  enlargement  of  Egypt's  fron- 
tiers, 188-90,  207  ;  the  price  paid 
to  Antony,  190  ;  in  Judaea  with 
Herod,  191 ;  Herod's  plots  against, 
192,  272  ;  goes  to  Antony  in 
Syria,  195  ;  her  ruse  to  checkmate 
Octavia,  200  ;  at  the  Alexandrian 
triumph,  206  ff.  ;  at  Ephesus  with 
Antony,  219  ;  her  contribution  to 
Antony's  forces,  219  ;  struggle  with 
his  Roman  adherents,  221-3, 
231,  242,  245,  315  ;  at  Athens, 
224  ;  Roman  accusations  against, 
229  ;  war  declared  against,  235  ; 
her  policy  in  the  Actium  campaign, 
241,  247  ff.,  322  ;  desire  for  naval 
fight,  245,  247  ;  conduct  at  battle 
of  Actium,  253  ff.  ;  with  Antony 
at  Taenarum,  260  ;  vigorous  action 
on  return  to  Alexandria,  263  ;  her 
schemes,  264-5,  278  ;  alleged 
spoliation  of  temples,  265  ;  the 
"  Die-togethers,"  268  ;  experiments 
with  poisons,  269-70  ;  negotiations 
with  Octavian,  272  ff- ;  his  offers 
to  her,  273-5,  280  ;  prepares  for  • 
death,  279  ;  flies  in  alarm  from 
Antony,  284  ;  receives  the  dying 
Antony,  286  ;  visited  by  Octavian, 
294-5 ;  *ear  of  figuring  in  a 
triumph,  296-7  ;  the  story  of  her 
death,  297-300 ;  fate  of  her  children, 
301-4 ;  her  attainments,  46, 
314  ;  gift  of  languages,  46,  50  ;  her 
beauty,  47,  70,  144,  310  ff. ;  her 
nose,  311,  313  ;  coins  of,  185-7, 
311-3  ;  bust,  3H-2  ;  in  sculpture, 
311 ;  influence  over  Julius  Caesar, 
46,  71,  92,  147,  314.  317  ff-  ; 
over  Antony,  11  n.,  37,  46,  140, 
147,  150,  314,  320  ff.  ;  accusations 
of  treachery  to  Antony,  246,  277, 


342 


INDEX 


280,  284,  332  ;  unjustly  called  a 
crowned  courtesan,  315  ^.  \  afiec- 
tion  for  her  children,  257,  273, 
290,  319,  321,  323-4  ;  behaviour 
towards  her  brothers  and  sister, 
334-5 ;  her  hatred  of  Arsinoe, 
53.  99»».,  M9 ;  cruelty:  325; 
courage,  326 ;  luxury,  157  Q., 
1S9 ;  attitude  toward  religion, 
52,94-7,265,330  ;  in  the  character 
of  Isis,  206,  329 ;  as  a  temple- 
builder,  52,  183,  328-9 ;  her 
treatment  by  the  historians,  306-8  ; 
her  enmity  with  the  Jews,  105, 
*'9.  307 ;  Josephus's  hatred  of, 
105,  182,  191-2,  307;  Ferrero  on 
her  policy,  102  n.,  174,  242  n.  ; 
her  task,  309-10 ;  her  rule  over 
Egypt,  318,  325  ff.  ;  justification 
of  her  title  of  "  the  Great,"  305  ff., 
332 

Cleopatra  I.  of  Egypt — 16,  48-9 

Cleopatra  III. — 15,  49, 183,  329 

Cleopatra  IV.— 48  n. 

Cleopatra  V.  Tryphaena,  mother  of 
Cleopatra  the  Great — 16,  29-32, 
Appendix  B. 

Cleopatra  Tryphaena,  alleged  daughter 
of  Ptolemy  Auletes — 29-30,  Ap- 
pendix B. 

Cleopatra  Selene,  daughter  of  Cleo- 
patra and  Antony — 181,  i83,  207, 
290.  303 

Clodius,  P>ubliu9 — 23,  27,  139,  169 

Cornelia,  last  wife  of  Pompey  the 
Great — 59,  61 

Crassus,  Lucius  Licinius,  triumvir 
— 21,  28,  102,  154,  215 

Curio,  Caius  Scribonius — 136-7,  139, 
169 

Cyprus— 15, 20, 23, 72, 129,  <te. 

Cycenalca — 18-19,  etc. 

Cytheris,  Roman  courtesan — 139,  168 


Doiotarus  of  Galatia — 240,  344 


Deir,  El-Bahari — 94,  311 

Dellius,    Quintus,    Roman    knight — 

139,  X42-3, 194.  23a,  244.  251,  316 
Demetrios,  Alexandrian    philosopher 

—42 
Dendera  (Tentyra) — 311,  328 
Diodorus  Siciilus — 113,  115 
Dion,  Alexandrian  citizen — 35-6 
Dion  Cassius — 23,  47,  69  Q.,  93,  210, 

248,  254.  275.  307,  ttc. 
Dion  Chrysostom — 113  n. 
Dioskorides,  Egyptian  official — 73 
Dolabella,  Publius  Cornelius,  Roman 

noble — 125  9.,  139.  324 
Dolabella,  son  of  foregoing — 296 
Drusilla,  supposed  granddaughter  of 

Cleopatra — ^304  ». 

Edfu — 31-3,  41,  335 

Egypt — 106  ff. ;  decay  of,  under 
Roman  influence,  xi,  18  ;  threat- 
ened with  annexation,  20,  43  ; 
enlarged  imder  Cleopatra,  188, 
208 ;  character  of  natives,  22, 
108 ;  parallels  with  China,  50, 
108 ;  attitude  toward  rulers,  22, 
97,  109,  327 ;  toward  woman's 
rule,  54  ;  annual  revenue  of,  21  ; 
wealth  of,  107,  189  ;  religion,  94, 
96,  109,  120  <?.  ;  priesthood,  109  ; 
array,  36,  38,  68,  Z12  ;  law  of 
inheritance  in,  lo,  12 ;  brother- 
and-sister  marriages,  13,  16,  30 ; 
Greeks  in,  50,  iio-i,  114  ;  Romans, 
37,  55.  "3  ;  Jews,  35,  m,  119, 
183  ;   Buddhists,  112 

Ephesus — 26,  149,  219 

Ermcnt  (Hermonthis)— 96,  312,  328 

Eros,  slave  of  Antony — 285 

Euphronios,  tutor  to  children  ol 
Qet^atra  and  Antony — 372,  274 

Eurykles,  Greek  soldier — 259 

Fadia,  first  wife  of  Antony — iv^ 
Favonius,  Roman  tribune — rj 


343 


INDEX 


Felix,    Antonius,    Roman    provincial       Julus,  younger  son  of  Antony  and 


governor — 304  n. 
Florus — 209,  249  ».,  326 
Fulvia,  third  wife  of  Antony — 139, 

151  ff.,  166  Q.,  180 
Fulvius,  father  of  foregoing — 168 


Fulvia — 170,  aoi 

Kamak — 95 
Komana — 33 
Kom  Ombo — 41 


Gabinius,   Aulus,   Roman  provincial       Labienus,  Roman  renegade— 154,  178 


governor — 28,  34,  37,  39,  55, 129 
Gabiniani— 37,  55-59,  68,  93 
Gallus,  Cornelius,  adherent  of  Octa- 

vian,  afterwards  first  governor  of 

Egypt — 263,  277,  291 
Ganymedes,  eunuch  of  Arsinoe  IV. 

—46,  78  §.,  98 
Gaza— 35 
Geminius,  adherent  of  Antony — 231 

Hammonios,  Egyptian  official — 100 
Hatshepsut,    Queen    of    Egypt — 54, 

94,  3" 
Hecataeus — 106 
Hermcmthis.    See  Erment 
Herod  the  Great — ^35,  154-5,  181-3, 

189-91,  240,  272,  308,  315 
Herodotus — 97,  106,  121 
Hipparchus,   freedman  of  Antony — 

375 
Hortensius,  enemy  of  Antony— 148 

lamblichus,  Arab  chief — 85 
lotapa,  Median  princess — 202,  216 
Iras,    attendant   on   Cleopatra — 236, 

260,  284,  286,  291,  299 
lullus.    See  Julus 

Joscphus — 50,  105,  iir,  149  n.,  182, 

191-2,  304  n.,  307,  316 
Juba,  King  of  Numidia — 60,  89,  98 
Juba,  King  of  Mauretania — 99,  303 
Jugurtha,  King  of  Numidia — 19 
Julia,  mother  of  Antony — 137,   170, 

173 
Julia,  daughter  of  Julius  Caesar — 56 
Julia,  daughter  of  Octavian — 170,  302 


Lagidae,  Macedonian  sovereigns  of 
Egypt — the  family,  12,  15,  47, 
Appendix  A  purely  Greek  blood 
of,  48,  50  ;  general  bad  character, 
12,  49-50,  149  ;  Jewish  historians 
on,  49,  307  ;  adoption  of  Egyptian 
customs,  10, 12, 16,  50-2  ;  brother- 
and-sister  marriages  among,  13, 
161  50,  334 ;  religious  policy  of, 
51,  X2I ;  as  temple-builders,  31, 
41,  52  ;  their  early  attempts  to 
Hellenize  Egypt,  no,  114;  ex- 
ploitation of  Egypt  by,  22,  107-8  ; 
their  wealth,  58,  107  ;  the  divine 
cult  of,  118;  their  identification 
of  themselves  with  gods,  42,  329  ; 
the  women  of  the  family,  ii,  33,  53 

Lagos,  ancestor  of  the  Lagidae — 12, 
48,  49 

Laodicea — 129-30 

Lentnlus,  Cornelius,  stepfather  of 
Antony — 148 

Lepidus,  Marcus  Aemilius,  triumvir 
— 130>  153.  174.  178-9, 195,  217 

Leuke  Kome — 195 

Libo,  brother  of  Scribonia — 173 

Livia,  wife  of  Octavian — 295 

Livy — 76 

Lucan — 76,  78-9,  98  n.,  306 

Lucian — 42 

Luxor — 95 

Maecenas,  friend  of  Octavian — 271 
Malchus,    King   of   the  Nabatbaean 

Arabs — 190,  240 
Media — 193,  202,  207,  215,  tic. 
Memphis — ^45  n.,  57, 123 


344 


INDEX 


Misenum — 176 

Mithridates  the  Great — 13,  x6,  33, 89 , 

Mithridates  of  Commagene — 240 
Mithridates  of  Pergamum — 84-5 
Mithridatis,  daughter  of  Mithridates 

the  Great — 16, 335 
Murcus,  admiral  of  Cassius — 131,  171 

Naukratis — 110,  114 
Nero— 42, 135, 177,  304  n. 
Nitocris,  Queen  of  Egypt — ra,  54 
Nyssa,  daughter  of  Mithridates  the 
Great— 16,  335 

Octavia,  sister  of  Octavian  and 
fourth  wife  of  Antony — 139,  175, 
177  ff;  199-201.  235-7,  295 

Octavian,  afterwards  the  Emperor 
Augustus — his  influence  on  early 
historians,  93,  135,  140,  186,  192, 
194,  211,  306 ;  hostility  toward 
Caesarion,  93,  302  ;  first  relations 
with  Antony,  127  ;  triumvir  with 
Antony  and  Lepidus,  130 ;  his 
remark  on  Antony's  bewitchment 
by  Cleopatra,  150 ;  enmity  with 
Fulvia,  169,  173  ;  treatment  of 
Antony's  sons,  170,  302  ;  at 
Brundisium  and  Tarentimi,  173-4, 
179  ;  defeats  Scxtus  Pompeius  and 
Lepidus,  197 ;  aUeged  sacrifice  of 
his  sister,  199,  201,  226 ;  foils 
Antony's  claim  for  recognition  of 
his  acts,  217-21  ;  seizes  Antony's 
will,  328  ;  his  motto,  230  ;  admin- 
isters the  conjuratio  to  Italy,  234  ; 
declares  war  against  Cleopatra,  236  ; 
recriminations  with  Antony,  218, 
238  ;  lands  in  Greece,  239  ;  bis  suc- 
cess at  Actium,  254  tf. ;  negotiations 
with  Antonyfand  Cleopatra,  272-6  ; 
reported  ofler  to  Cleopatra,  273  ; 
defeats  Antony  In  Egypt,  283  ; 
oooduct  after  entering  Alexandria, 


393  ;  visits  Cleopatra,  294-5  ;  his 
intentions  toward  her,  296 ;  gfives 
her  a  royal  funeral,  301 ;  his  treat- 
ment of  her  children,  301-3 

Olympos,  Cleopatra's  physician — 
294  ». 

Onias,  Jewish  general — 183 

Orodes,  King  of  Parthia — 60, 155 

Orosius — 249  n. 

Paoorus  of  Parthia — 155 

Paraetonium — 262,  279 

Parthians — 55,    60,    102,    155,     165, 

177-8,  181,  215 
Pasirenptah,  Egyptian  priest — ^45  n, 
Patrac — 234,  238,  256 
Pelusium — 35,  58,  69,  85,  262,  277» 

279 
Perikles — 115 
Perusia — 153,  165 
Phamakes,    son   of    Mithridates    the 

Great — 89 
Phasael  of  Judaea — 154-5, 182 
Philadelphos  of  Paphlagonia — 240 
Philae — 41 
Philip  Amyntas,  King  of  Macedon — 

49.  333 
Philippus,  freedman  of  Pompey — 6t 
Phraata — 193-4 

Pinarius,  Roman  officer — 263,  379 
Plancus,  lieutenant  of  Antony — 177, 

i9Si  197.  310,  238 
Pliny — 161,  246,  313 
Plutarch — 10,  38,  46,  59  ff.,  69,  143, 

159,  300,  373,  383,  307,  etc.,  ttc. 
Polemon  of  Pontus — 198,  315 
Pompeius,  Cnaeus,  junior — 56-7,  98, 

310,  316 
Pompeius,   Sextus — 59,  151,    171   0-, 

179,  184,  195-7 
Pompey  the  Great  (Cnaeus  Pompeius 

Magnus) — 30-1,    34   ff.,    33-4.    40 

56,  58-«3 
PoQtus — 16,  33,  198,  etc. 
Porphyry — 39,  30,  104,  187,  334 


345 


INDEX 


Potheinos,  eunuch  of  Ptolemy  XIV. 
46,  55,  59.  67,  69.  73  ff-,  78,  89,  98, 
836 

Proculeius,  Roman  officer — 389-391 

Propertius — 330 

Ptolemais — 27,  no,  114 

Ptolemy  I.  Soter,  son  of  Lagos — la, 
49,  114.  X23-4 

Ptolemy  II.  Philadelphos — ^49,  50, 
113,  116,  312,  324 

Ptolemy  III.  Euergetes — 31,  49,  50, 
188 

Ptolemy  IV.  Philopator — 16,  41-2, 
45,  49,  50,  90,  119,  t57,  307,  330 

Ptolemy  V.  Epiphanes — 16,  51 

Ptolemy  VII.  Phitometor— 49,  183 

Ptolemy  IX.  Physkon — 17,  48-9, 
"9,  307 

Ptolemy  X.  Lathyros — 12,  14-5,  48, 
327 

Ptolemy  XT.  Alexander  I. — 12-14,  49 

Ptolemy  XII.  Alexander  II. — 13-4, 
17 

Ptolemy  XIIL  Auletes,  father  of 
Cleopatra  the  Great — his  parent - 
^%^t  15,  48 ;  becomes  King  of 
Egypt,  15 ;  question  as  to  his 
wife's  identity,  16,  29  ff..  Appendix 
B  ;  attempts  to  obtain  recognition 
by  Rome,  18  ff. ;  purchases 
Caesar's  support,  21 ;  recognised 
by  Rome,  22;  expelled  by  Alex- 
andrians, 23 ;  in  Rome,  33-4  ; 
restoration,  28  ;  his  family,  29  ff., 
Appendix  B. ;  conduct  on  return 
to  Egypt,  35  ff. ;  death,  40  ;  his 
will,  40,  43,  52,  71-2  ;  character, 
40-3  ;  crimes,  25,  36,  41,  49 ;  his 
use  of  bribes,  18,  21,  35,  38  ;  base 
coinage,  22  ;  borrowings,  24,  37  ; 
effect  of  his  rule  on  Egypt,  43,  107 , 
327  ;  his  nickname,  xj,  42  ;  as  the 
"  New  Dionysos,"  15,  42,  330 

Ptolemy  XIV.,  elder  brother  of  Cleo- 
patra—30  ff.,  46,  53-4,  57,  63,  67, 


71  ff.,  83  ff.,  309,  312,  316,  324 ;  a 

pretender  claiming  to  be,  149  «., 

150 
Ptolemy    XV.,    younger   brother    of 

Cleopatra — 29  ff.,  72,  74,  88,  99, 

104-3,  188,  317,  325 
Ptolemy  XVI.  Casear.    Sec  Caesarion 
Ptolemy,  younger  son  of  Cleopatra 

and  Antony — 193,   207,  290,  303' 

304  n. 
Ptolemy  of  Mauretania,  grandson  of 

Cleopatra — 303 
Ptolemy  the  Cyprian,  uncle  of  Cleo- 
patra— 15,  23,  309 
Ptolemy  Apion,  ruler  of  Cyrenaica — 

x7 
Puteoli — 35,  134 

Rabirius,  Roman  money-lender — 
38^7. 

Ramses  II.  of  Egypt — 45 

Rhakotis.    See  imder  Alexandria 

Rhodon,  tutor  of  Caesarion — 290, 
301-2 

Rome — the  "  evil  eye  "  of,  11 ;  her 
policy  in  Egypt,  13,  x7  ff-,  24,  32, 
43,  107,  125  ;  Roman  troops  in 
Alexandria,  37  ;  Rome's  first  inter- 
vention in  Cleopatra's  reign,  58  ; 
offence  at  Caesar's  connection  with 
Cleopatra,  loi ;  effect  of  Antony's 
Alexandrian  donations,  213  ;  public 
opinion  at  last  solid  for  Octavian, 
276 ;  Roman  attitude  toward 
foreigners,  39,  83,  loi,  129,  213, 
306  ;  Roman  morals  of  the  period, 
19  n.,  36,  100,  129,  143  ;  Roman 
historians  on  Cleopatra,  see  under 
Octavian 

Ru&nus,  freedman  of  Caesar— 93 

Rullus,  Roman  tribune — 30 

Sadalas  of  Thrace — 240 
Salvius,  Roman  centurion — ^ 
Samoa — 224 


346 


INDEX 


Saxa,  Roman  officer — 153 
Scribonia,  wife  of  Octavian — 173 
Selene,  sister  of  Ptolemy   X. — 14-5, 

19 
Seleukidae,  Syrian  royal  family — 16, 

32.  34 
Seleukos  "  Kybiosaktesj" — 33 
Seleukos,    two    Egyptians    named — 

280,  895 
Seneca — 76,  142  n. 
Septimins,  Roman  centtirion — 60-61 
Serapion,   various  Egyptians  named 

— 73,  100,  129,  130 
Sikyon — 167 
Sinope — •123 
Smyrna — 131 

Socrates  the  Rhodian — 145 
Sostus,  Caius,  lieutenant  of  Antony 

— 189,  217,  220-1,  245 
Spinther,  Lentulus,  Roman  consul — 

25-7 
Strabo— 76,  327,  334-5 
Stratonikda — 155 
Suetonius — 90,  93-4,  103,  306 
Sulla,    Lucius    Cornelius — 13-4,    20, 

33, 204 
Syria — X5-6,  19,  20,  124,  150,  etc. 
Tacitus — 304  n. 
Taenarum,  Cape — 132, 360-1 
Tarentum — 179,  238 


Tarkondimotos  of  CiL'eia — 240 

Tarsus — 11  n.,  131,  144 

Tentyra.    See  E>endera 

Thebes— 94-5,  327 

Theocritus — 115  n.,  118  n.,  119,  313 

Theodoros,  tutor  of  Antyllus — 302 

Theodotos,  tutor  of  Ptolemy  XIV. — 

54.  59.  67,  79 
Theophanes  of  Lesbos — 60 
Theophilus,  Bishop— 120 
Tbothmoses  L  of  Egypt — 95 
Thyrsus,    freedman    of    Octavian — 

274-6 
Tigranes,  King  of  Armenia — 19,  154 
Timon  of  Athens — 267 
Titius,    lieutenant    of    Antony — 197, 

323 

Toryne — 239 

Trebonius,  Roman  provincial  governor 

—128 
TuruUius,  Roman  senator — 274 

Utica — 89 

VeUeius    Paterculus — 303,    2x0,    338, 
303 

Xiphilin — 300  n. 

Zenobia  of  Palmyra — 160 
Zonaras — 377 


347 


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